China: Shanghai Authorities Blame Dead Students for Fire

Posted by Michael Anderson, Sound of hope radio, on Friday, November 21st, 2008 -

A week after a dormitory fire at Shanghai’s Commerce School which killed four female students, grieving parents are still waiting for a satisfactory explanation from the school and authorities about the true cause of the fire, as well as compensation issues. The fire broke out last Friday at the Shu-Hui School District, and officials have determined that the students caused the fire by using electric heating rods.

Mother of deceased student Chen Yu says that the public security office said that a heating rod was the cause, and did not say anything about responsibility, assistance from the government, plans or anything else. She says they are very helpless now and that they are suffering here while the children’s bodies are lying in the morgue. She says they were constantly told to wait and that there was no progress, and the families are very angered by this. She questions the safety of the dorms and that normally there would be a safety switch to stop the electric heating rods from running.

Zhang Zong, the uncle of Zhang Yan-ping who died in the fire says that fire investigators found that the fire was caused by illegal use of heaters. He says however that his niece was sleeping in bed, and that the fire was caused by the government’s actions. He says he is being lied to and officials are saying that they will leave the issue of responsibility aside, and go straight into money for compensation. Zhang says that they give everything for their children and that they would rather the adults suffer than to have the child endure pain. He says that officials look out for each other and it’s correct that the United States criticises China for having no human rights. He says his brother incurred a lot of debt trying to raise his niece, and that had they not made a big deal out of the fire, they wouldn’t receive any compensation. He says the government is just too corrupt.

Zhang Zong says that the compensation of $300,000 Yuan is very unreasonable, and that a university student has their whole life in front of them. He says that Chinese people are worth very little, and that overseas, something like this would have the government providing several million dollars in compensation. He says even foreigners who becomes injured or die in China, the government would provide compensations in the millions. He says the $300,000 Yuan is very chilling, and that the Chinese (communist) government is too corrupt and without much hope.

It has been reported that the floors on which the dead students lived were illegally added to the building. The fire extinguisher in the dorm was expired and that escape routes were blocked. The school did not have an adequate emergency response plan. After 20 minutes of the fire help had still not arrived, leaving the four students to their deaths after they tried to escape by jumping out of the window.

- Sound of hope radio: Authorities blame dead students for fire