State authorities in China have launched a comprehensive investigation into a catastrophic fire at a footwear factory in the southeastern province of Fujian which claimed the lives of 28 people. The fatal incident has once again thrust the manufacturing sector of the nation into the spotlight over persistent workplace safety vulnerabilities.
The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday that intensive search and rescue operations had concluded at the site. Accident investigators are now working to establish the exact cause of the inferno, which tore through the Fujian Huiteng shoe factory on Thursday.
The facility is located in Jinjiang, one of the country's most prominent footwear production centres. Commercial listings on digital trade and import platforms indicate that Fujian Huiteng produces consumer goods for both domestic Chinese corporations and major international brands.
Broadcast footage from local media outlets captured distressing scenes of several employees stranded on the roof of the five-storey concrete complex, as dense plumes of black smoke billowed into the sky. Emergency crews faced severe difficulties containing the initial outbreak, with water jets from fire tenders initially failing to reach the upper storeys of the structure.
In the immediate aftermath, Xinhua confirmed that the factory owner and senior managers had been detained by police, while corporate bank accounts linked to the firm had been frozen.
According to administrative logs, 237 factory labourers and two visitors were inside the premises when the blaze broke out. Rescue teams successfully pulled 213 people from the building, but two individuals later succumbed to their injuries in hospital. The remaining 26 workers, who had initially been logged as missing, were subsequently confirmed dead by state broadcaster CCTV.
In May, a major blast at a fireworks manufacturing site in Changsha, Hunan province, resulted in at least 37 fatalities. That tragedy followed an industrial fire last year at a cold-storage facility under construction in Xinyu, Jiangxi province, which caused 39 deaths.
Government ministries have repeatedly ordered manufacturing enterprises to systematically identify and eliminate structural hazards. Official data reveals that 18,261 people lost their lives across nearly 20,000 recorded industrial accidents in China during 2025, representing a statistical decrease from the previous year.
Chinese President Xi Jinping issued an immediate directive demanding a swift inquiry into the Fujian disaster, calling for all individuals deemed responsible to be held fully accountable under the law.
The locality of Jinjiang is globally recognised as the shoe capital of China, hosting thousands of independent footwear workshops and producing roughly 20 per cent of the world's athletic footwear. According to industrial data, the hub manufactures well over one billion pairs of shoes annually.
The meteoric transformation of the city from a collection of small-scale workshops into a massive, export-orientated industrial power house has previously been lauded by state leaders as the landmark Jinjiang Experience, serving as a blueprint for wider economic development.
According to reports by CCTV, the initial combustion began on the ground floor of the factory, a zone primarily designated for active workshops and raw material warehousing. A local fire official noted that the factory had stockpiled vast quantities of highly flammable shoe sole compounds directly inside the building's stairwells. This restricted administrative access for arriving fire crews and severely hindered emergency evacuation routes, allowing the toxic fire to spread with devastating speed.
The local fire department deployed 183 emergency personnel and 35 specialised vehicles to combat the inferno, bringing the main flames under control in approximately four hours. Xinhua later stated that the broader search, rescue, and salvage operation eventually involved more than 500 emergency responders.
