Northwest China's Shaanxi province has suspended all fireworks production, after a firecrackers factory explosion claimed nine lives on the first day of the New Year.
The provincial government on Sunday urged production safety supervision departments to work with public security and industry and commerce departments to oversee a thorough overhaul of all fireworks plants in the province.
A joint investigation team has found that the explosion at Xinping Firecrackers Co in Pucheng county has been caused by poor management, while the company was expediting production to seize more shares of the festive market.
More than 100 people were working when the blast went off. The explosion tore down all seven workshops of the company, which was only 500 meters from the nearest farmhouse of Yilong village.
The company boss Qu Pingxin, a native of Yilong Village, surrendered himself to police Saturday, a day after he fled, said Zhi Jianfeng, deputy head and public security chief of Pucheng county.
Investigators said that the workshops were overcrowded and the workers were not well trained on safety production knowledge.
Four of eight injured victims from the accident were in serious condition. One of the slightly injured has been discharged from hospital.
The county is a traditional production base for festive fireworks, said Wang Zhaoyu, director of the county's Fireworks Administration Bureau.
He said the county has 30,000 people working for fireworks plants. The industry's output reached 300 million yuan ($44 million) in 2009.
In 2009, six workers died in four explosion accidents in firework plants in the county, he said.
Cheng Jianlong, a production safety official in the county, said that the county government has encouraged mergers of family workshops since 2007 in order to upgrade the industry, and approved fireworks production licenses to 51 companies. Xinping is one of the licensed companies.
