1994 Karamay fire

The Karamay fire (Chinese: 克拉玛依大火) occurred on 8 December 1994 when the students were entertaining the visiting officials at a theatre in Karamay, Xinjiang, China.[2] This fire remains the most notorious fire in China for the fact that the students were ordered to remain seated to allow the visiting officials to walk out first when the fire happened.[3] The fire killed 325, including 288 schoolchildren.[4]

1994 Karamay fire
Date8 December 1994
Time
LocationA theatre in Karamay
Deaths325[1]
Non-fatal injuries130+

Building design

The Friendship Theatre was built in 1958 following Soviet architecture,[5] renovated starting in 1989 and reentered operation in December 1991. The building had three floors and was originally designed with a capacity of 796 people. The renovation increased it to 810. The soundproofing material was made of asbestos and polyurethane, the curtains were made of cotton. In certain positions, the spotlight was only at a distance of 20 cm from the stage curtains.[6] Due to a lack of awareness on fire safety, the refurbishments of the theatre introduced many flammable objects, such as the seats, which due to being made from artificial fibres, burned well, spread out toxic gasses and proved fatal in the fire to many people.[7]

The fire

On 8 December 1994, 500 schoolchildren were taken to a special variety performance at a theatre in Karamay at Friendship Theatre (友谊馆). Most were aged between 7 and 14.[3] From the accounts of survivors, it appears that spotlights near the stage either short-circuited, caused the curtain to catch fire spontaneously or fell. The curtain caught fire, then exploded, and fire engulfed the auditorium within a minute or two,[3] and the fire caused a short circuit, shutting all the remaining lights. Various burning objects in the theatre released poisonous gases.[7]

The firefighters who arrived on scene first did not have proper respiratory equipment and were thus unable to enter the hall.[7] The dry powder fire extinguishers in the theatre, though potent against chemical fires, were wholly useless against the fire, high up in the curtains.[7]

"Let the officials leave first"

In 1995, the China Youth Daily was the first to have reported that somebody had asked the students 'let the leaders leave first' (让领导先走).[8] The phrase has since become a catch phrase, meaning the government officials have priority over ordinary folks in times of emergency. For such, this fire remains the most notorious fire in China.

She has since been identified in online articles as Kuang Li (况丽), who was vice-director of the state petroleum company’s local education centre, though there has been no official confirmation of this.[3] The teachers obeyed, and the children remain seated. By the time the about 20 officials had filed out through the only opened emergency exit, when all the other exits remained locked, it was too late. Teachers hurried the pupils out of their seats to other exits, only to find that the emergency exit doors were locked. Parents and survivors alleged that Kuang took refuge in a ladies’ cloakroom that could have sheltered 30 people and barred the doors behind her. A 10-year-old boy said "My teacher asked me to run out of the theatre, but when I stood up the hall was smothered in smoke and fire. The power then cut out. People could see nothing. The place was full of crying and shouting."[3]

Other survivors agreed that while 'let the leaders go first' was indeed said, it was spoken at the beginning of the performance, as a manner of respect to them when the performance ends and China Youth Daily took the original sentence out of context.[9] Notably, in the documentary Karamay, in an interview conducted in the hospital immediately after the fire, none of the interviewees spoke about the students being instructed to let the leaders go first.[10]

Arguably, even if the leaders had left first, it wouldn't have made a difference; the main reason why many people died in front of doors A, B was due to panic. The panic induced irrational thinking, and many people tried to escape the way they entered, inevitably leading to a crush at the A, B doors, while the safer E, F doors were ignored even though they were not blocked in the rush to exit. The anti-robbery bars installed significantly hampered evacuation through windows and other doors.[7]

Fatalities and justice

A total of 325 deaths were reported, with 288 of them being school children.[3] Most of the 36 adults were teachers. About 100 corpses were heaped up outside the cloakroom.

甲、乙 are horizontally opening metal doors separating the entrance hall and the corridors. Only 甲 was open in the fire.Doors 1, 2, 3 are roller doors; 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 are standard doors with an additional metal security door on the outside and locked in the fire. During the fire, door 3 was opened and fell down when power was cut.[11] In another version, 3 was always open, 1 was closed but it was 2 that was out of order;[12] in photos after the disaster, it is seen propped up by advertising hoarding. Although door 6 was locked,[12] it was blown open by wind gusts from the fire. Doors A-F were wooden doors, C and D were locked. Red walls are windows; all windows had metal anti-theft bars. X marks where most people died[12]

In 1995, 300 families of the dead and injured sent representatives to the National People’s Congress in Beijing, supposedly the venue for Chinese citizens to seek justice and a fair hearing. They were led off by security guards to a walled government compound, where five buses took them back to the airport. The group were then escorted through special channels to a plane bound for Xinjiang.[3]

A court convicted a total of 13 people. Four of them, senior officials, were convicted of dereliction of duty and sentenced up to five years in prison.[3] Others were convicted of lesser crimes while Zhao Zheng was acquitted.[13]

Officials Position Prison time[3]
Fang Tian Lu (方天录)the highest-ranking official in the theatre 5 years
Zhao Lanxiu (赵兰秀)the vice-mayor 4 years
Tang Jian (唐剑)a city education official 5 years
Kuang Li (况丽)- 4 years

Families received compensation of up to 50,589 yuan.[3] One week after the fire, city officials in Karamay announced plans to demolish the burned out Friendship Theater. This plan was quickly scrapped following protests by residents of Karamay and parents of the deceased children. Three years later, in September 1997, the theater portion of the building was torn down, leaving only the front hall. This unmarked memorial still stands in what is now the People's Park in the center of Karamay.[14]

There is no plaque or memorial anywhere in Karamay that references the deadly fire.

Popular Chinese folk singer Zhou Yunpeng (周云蓬) has compiled a list of Chinese man-made disasters and turned it into a song, and the Karamay fire incident was mentioned in the song, as was the internet catch phrase, "Let the leaders walk out first."[15](让领导先走)

See also

References
  1. Xinhuanet. "Xinhuanet.com." South China club fire kills at least 43, injures 88. Retrieved on 27 September 2008.
  2. "China Orders Safety Study After Fire Kills 300". The New York Times. 10 December 1994. p. 3. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  3. "China aghast at 'sacrifice' of 288 pupils". The Times. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  4. "China 1994 fire killed 288 pupils as officials fled-expose". Reuters. 8 May 2007. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  5. "克拉玛依公布首批六处市级保护文物单位(组图)_新闻中心_新浪网". news.sina.com.cn. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  6. "从克拉玛依友谊馆火灾论建筑的设计和管理问题" [Lessons learnt from the Karamay fire on design and management]. www.ixueshu.com. Archived from the original on 14 September 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  7. 网易 (10 December 2018). "事件消防：克拉玛依大火启示录". www.163.com. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  8. 刘冰, 刘光牛. 人祸猛于火——克拉玛依“12·8”惨案的警示. 河南教育 (中国青年报). 1995-01-10 Archived 2012-12-14]. Note: the original text was '同学们，让领导先走……', 'students, let the officials leave first...'
  9. "17年后，再看"让领导先走"_评论频道_腾讯网". view.news.qq.com. Archived from the original on 13 June 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  10. Xu, Xin. Karamay (documentary) (in Chinese).
  11. 刘冰, 刘光牛. 人祸猛于火——克拉玛依“12·8”惨案的警示. 河南教育 (中国青年报). 1995-01-10 [2012-12-14]. (Archived on 2015-08-16)
  12. 潘丽. 从克拉玛依友谊馆火灾论建筑的设计和管理问题. 建筑知识. 1996, (2) [2012-12-17]. (Archived 2013-12-11)
  13. "案例全文页-标准显示模式". 5 April 2016. Archived from the original on 5 April 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  14. "Karamay Fire 1994: The Real Story Behind China's Worst Fire Disaster". FarWestChina. 3 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  15. Wang, Jingyi (Veronica) (12 May 2020). "From Rebellion to Erasure: The Rise and Fall of Urban Folk Rocker Li Zhi". Made in China Journal. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 May 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2021. For example, the now-banned 'Chinese Kids' (中国孩子, 2007) by Zhou Yunpeng directly condemned several, well-known horrifying scandals involving the death of children. [...] in 1994, when pupils were told to 'let the leaders walk out first', [...]

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