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(Guardian)   Fire at illegal Chinese shoe factory kills 37 workers. May God have mercy on their soles   (guardian.co.uk) divider line
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2257 clicks; posted to Main » on 23 Oct 2007 at 9:50 AM (15 years ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



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Last One Left
2007-10-23 6:11:45 AM  
If they only had some kind of fire drill...
 
The Real Damien
2007-10-23 6:18:50 AM  
that was bad.... congrats you have achieved Attilla the Pun status
 
Knight without armor
2007-10-23 6:21:14 AM  
I hope they catch the heel that started it
 
Snoozer
2007-10-23 6:29:00 AM  
Bravo submitter.
 
Outlaw_Rudy
2007-10-23 7:08:35 AM  
SUPAR FASTEST RECIEVEMENT OF HUMOUR WOULD READ AGAIN A++++++++++++++++++++-
 
DisneyOnIce
2007-10-23 7:37:07 AM  
fark them - they give us Wal-Mart quality shoes. We buy and biatch at Customer Service when they turn out to be crap. They deserve to burn for not delivering "American" quality.


BEIJING (AP) - A fire at an unlicensed shoe factory killed 37 people and injured more than a dozen, Chinese authorities said Monday, one of the deadliest industrial accidents this year in a country plagued with dangerous workplaces.

The fire started Sunday night in a workshop making shoe uppers, said a woman surnamed Zhou in the information office of the Communist Party committee in Putian, an export manufacturing town in southeastern Fujian province. It was likely caused by an electric wire that caught fire, according to a spokeswoman for the city police.

None of the 56 workers at the factory escaped unhurt.

HA-HA - It funny cause it true! (new window)
 
DisneyOnIce
2007-10-23 7:43:57 AM  
This is one of the most appalling things I've ever read. And I've read a lot.

FTA: Last year, 14,382 people died in 12,065 industrial accidents, not including fires, according to the State Administration of Work Safety. The agency recorded three major blazes in 2006, killing a total of 38 people.

I want to vomit.
 
Two Dogs Farking [TotalFark]
2007-10-23 7:46:49 AM  
DisneyOnIce: I want to vomit.

Don't worry, there's still over 1.3 billion of them left. Better they should die in industrial accidents now than be around to help invade Taiwan in 5 years.
 
DisneyOnIce
2007-10-23 8:36:30 AM  
For those to lazy to read the article here it is:

BEIJING (AP) - A fire at an unlicensed shoe factory killed 37 people and injured more than a dozen, Chinese authorities said Monday, one of the deadliest industrial accidents this year in a country plagued with dangerous workplaces.

The fire started Sunday night in a workshop making shoe uppers, said a woman surnamed Zhou in the information office of the Communist Party committee in Putian, an export manufacturing town in southeastern Fujian province. It was likely caused by an electric wire that caught fire, according to a spokeswoman for the city police.

None of the 56 workers at the factory escaped unhurt.

Putian is a center of shoe manufacturing in China and the export business has helped turn Fujian into one of the country's most prosperous provinces.

With more than 3,000 shoe factories in the area, Putian exported more than $1.1 billion in shoes last year, according to state media.

While China's coal mines are known to be the world's most dangerous, safety violations are also rife in the country's many factories. Thousands die each year in fires, explosions and other accidents often blamed on insufficient safety equipment and workers ignoring safety rules.

Last year, 14,382 people died in 12,065 industrial accidents, not including fires, according to the State Administration of Work Safety. The agency recorded three major blazes in 2006, killing a total of 38 people.

Sunday's fire was one of the first pieces of bad news reported by the state-controlled media since high-level Communist Party meetings opened in Beijing nine days ago.

The factory fire was not the only workplace accident in China on Sunday - a fireworks plant exploded in Chongqing municipality, killing 16. The blast leveled several houses and left 15 injured and one missing, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The cause has not been determined.

The Feida Shoe Upper Manufacturing Workshop was located in a residential area of Putian, but the fire did not affect nearby homes, Zhou said.

She said police detained the owner and her husband, Huang Shubin and Chen Zongfei.

Zhou said the workshop was operating without alicense. Huang registered the business with the local government in 2003, but the license was revoked in 2004 after officials found it illegally combined work, storage and living areas, Zhou said.

Xinhua, citing provincial information office director Zhu Qing, said the business was licensed, but had been warned in May and September to improve working conditions to meet safety standards. Telephones at Zhu's office were not answered on Monday.

A deputy director of the State Administration of Work Safety went to Fujian to lead an investigation, agency spokeswoman An Yuanjie said. She had no further details.

The death toll in Sunday's fire was among the highest in an accident so far this year. The worst accident in China this year was in August, when 181 coal miners died when a dike on a swollen river broke, flooding two mines.

There's some prime comedy there!

But don't mock those that died on 9/11! They are sacred.
 
nobozo
2007-10-23 8:39:49 AM  
New York learned a worse lesson back in 1911.

Triangle sweatshop fire (pops)
 
DisneyOnIce
2007-10-23 8:55:32 AM  
nobozo: New York learned a worse lesson back in 1911.

Triangle sweatshop fire (pops)

Please, don't bring that up, it makes the gentry uncomfortable.

That bolshevik shiat was what created the unions that are currently destroying the American/Corpratist totalitarianism ideal in the first place.

Let us go back to the days when a human being was nothing more than a disposable item on the way to profits. It certainly works in China. See article above.

USA!USA!USA!

Ahhhh, fark.

I don't care anymore.
 
amandah
2007-10-23 9:54:13 AM  
ok...so yeah..loved the heading subby.
 
Last One Left
2007-10-23 9:54:21 AM  
DisneyOnIce: You suck as a human being. Did you even read the green-lighted article?

Given where I live, what makes you think this is the first I've heard of this?
 
Supercheeks
2007-10-23 9:56:32 AM  
Their sores?
 
DaSwankOne
2007-10-23 10:03:51 AM  
I bet that the submitter has been waiting for a shoe factory fire since he came up with this headline in early 2005.
 
japles
2007-10-23 10:07:25 AM  
Last One Left: If they only had some kind of fire drill...

I LOL'd ;)
 
sp00ks102
2007-10-23 10:09:57 AM  
why don't you make
 
Colonel_Ingus
2007-10-23 10:10:09 AM  
That wont drive up the prices will it? I am just about due for some new sneeks.
 
toonz
2007-10-23 10:10:13 AM  
Knight without armor: I hope they catch the heel that started it

It was their arch enemy.
 
spartan.117
2007-10-23 10:10:31 AM  
Nikes! Adidan't know that it was so bad working in China.

/and I'm farked if I can figure how to work reebok into that sentence.
 
sp00ks102
2007-10-23 10:10:34 AM  
a coherent thought
 
sp00ks102
2007-10-23 10:11:15 AM  
and make one long post, instead of making 5 in a farking row
 
lerxst2112
2007-10-23 10:11:20 AM  
TaGirl_Keri: Meanwhile the US whines like little girls about fires in San Diego. How many dead? Oh, I forgot, it's $$ that you worry about. Poor people.

Well when its over a quarter of a million people evacuated, then yes we will worry. Asshat.
 
RiverKing
2007-10-23 10:15:30 AM  
What do you call a shoe store with only one owner? A sole proprietorship. ...
 
ScottMpls
2007-10-23 10:15:52 AM  
I'll bet the plant manager gets the boot ...

/nothin'
 
Abe Vigoda's Ghost
2007-10-23 10:17:20 AM  
img254.imageshack.usView Full Size
 
unfknreal
2007-10-23 10:19:27 AM  
I think I know DisneyOnIce's problem with the headline...

The factory was only making shoe uppers according to the article... there were no soles involved.
 
Wendy's Chili
2007-10-23 10:20:01 AM  
I'm with Disney.

-10 subby.
 
carrion_luggage
2007-10-23 10:21:54 AM  
Maybe if they hadn't run around the building three times then ran bck inside they'd still be alive.
 
RangerBoB2.0
2007-10-23 10:28:19 AM  
May God have mercy on their soles
If they only had some kind of fire drill...

Boooooooooooo........
 
lindasummer69
2007-10-23 10:28:41 AM  
Subby fails.

There were no soles - they were manufacturing shoe uppers.
 
SPL317
2007-10-23 10:31:17 AM  
The factory fire was not the only workplace accident in China on Sunday - a fireworks plant exploded in Chongqing municipality, killing 16. The blast leveled several houses and left 15 injured and one missing,

KABOOM!
 
TheGreatGazoo
2007-10-23 10:32:23 AM  
Butters?
 
walnuts55
2007-10-23 10:32:45 AM  
TY this made me smile very nice headline
 
Abe Vigoda's Ghost
2007-10-23 10:33:18 AM  
lindasummer69: Subby fails.

There were no soles - they were manufacturing shoe uppers.

How about:
Fire at illegal Chinese shoe factory kills 37 workers. Thankfully no soles lost.


/Not subby
 
SMOIT!
2007-10-23 10:34:49 AM  
I worked in a shoe warehouse for several years. All of the returns had to be checked by the store managers and shipped back to us.

Nearly half of the college graduate managers would spell the word sole as soul. So I took it upon myself to include a note to all the offenders in thier next shipment that read " The shoes in your store seem to be very desperate, I recomend counseling of all soulless shoes before return."

The big boss man got dozens of phone calls before he had to track me down and tell me to knock it off. I guess I hurt thier feelings.
 
SquirrelHill
2007-10-23 10:35:11 AM  
DisneyOnIce: For those to lazy to read the article here it is:

wait, if they are too lazy to read the article, why are you giving it to them to read? Do you think the bold italics will cure them of their sloth?

/I always like to work up a good reading sweat, personally
 
thepostess
2007-10-23 10:38:03 AM  
I thought subby's headline was funny.

/Aisle seat please
//Big Box Mart with be the death of all of us.
 
Mad Scientist [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2007-10-23 10:38:18 AM  
Oh, the shoe-manity!
 
dryknife [BareFark]
2007-10-23 10:41:10 AM  
[image from i173.photobucket.com too old to be available]

A tragedy that was bound to happen.
 
TrevorP
2007-10-23 10:42:07 AM  
WTG Subby.
 
SMOIT!
2007-10-23 10:43:05 AM  
SMOIT!: thier


Aw crap!

//ALL ABOARD! Failboat departure in fifteen minutes.
 
theaton
2007-10-23 10:43:10 AM  
All those fireworks employees now have blew eyes!
 
positive thinking does NOT work!
2007-10-23 10:43:11 AM  
Reminds me of the terrible fire years ago at the Roth drapery factory.

A man named Harry Lewis was killed in a fire as he was
walking through the warehouse where the drapes of Roth were stored.

/he had the finest funeral the union could afford
 
wingnut396
2007-10-23 10:45:49 AM  
So what makes the factory illegal? The owner neglected to pay the proper bribes or simply the fact that it burned and is now in the news?

I have a suspicion that every factory in China can conveniently be declared illegal for any reason so that their government can save face and act like they have no idea shiat like this is going on all over their country.
 
creativitylack
2007-10-23 11:00:50 AM  
After the alarm went off, several of the employees ran out of the building and proceeded to circle around it a couple of times. They then ran back inside, to their demise.
 
ZurkisPhreek
2007-10-23 11:02:26 AM  
Considering how many Chinese companies use child labor, this might just be another sad youth-in-Asia story...

/Window seat, please
 
medius [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2007-10-23 11:09:46 AM  
you want window?

sorry, people who make bad jokes ride with the baggage
 
themadtupper
2007-10-23 11:12:21 AM  
Last One Left: If they only had some kind of fire drill...

damn you!
 
Bandman614
2007-10-23 11:12:29 AM  
Subby:

I voted for the headline, but I'm giving you a stern look
 
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