(CNN) The deadliest fire to hit the Chinese capital in two decades killed 29 people at a hospital Tuesday, but most people didn’t hear about it until hours later, and even then the details are thin as the authorities keep the details under wraps.
Meanwhile, the flames destroyed Changfeng Hospital in Fengtai district from 1 pm Tuesday, forcing some desperate people to climb out of windows and hug air conditioning units, the state media kept silent and censored indicates scrubbing the internet of any mention.
The extent of information control and censorship has arrived as a shock to internet users, as well as Beijing residents, many of them complained online that they had no idea that a deadly fire had broken out in their city until late Tuesday night.
On Wednesday, Beijing officials offered more details about the fire at a news conference, which was delayed by half an hour and less than 20 minutes.
The fire that engulfed an inpatient building at Changfeng Hospital was caused by sparks from interior renovation work that ignited flammable paint, Zhao Yang, an official with the Beijing fire department, said on Wednesday. .
Twelve people were detained on suspicion of gross negligence, including hospital director and construction workers, said Sun Haitao, an official of the Beijing Public Security Bureau.
In videos shared on social media Tuesday — before they were censored — smoke could be seen billowing from the hospital’s many windows as people desperately tried to escape the fire. At least one person appeared to have used a rope made from bedsheets to descend from a window to a lower-level terrace.
Others were seen holding air conditioning units positioned outside the building, or trying to use the units to maneuver themselves from one level to the next. A man was seen jumping from one level of the building to the lower terrace.
The fire was Beijing’s deadliest in recent years, surpassing the toll of a fire in 2017 that killed 19 in a crowded two-story building in the Daxing district of the capital’s southern suburbs.
It was also one of the worst censored incidents in recent years — and a sign of tightening media controls in China under leader Xi Jinping, the country’s most authoritarian leader. in a generation.
‘Eerie silence’
The fire broke out in a busy neighborhood in western Beijing around noon on Tuesday, but it was not reported in Chinese media until about eight hours after firefighters responded to calls for help.
At 8:43 p.m., a brief report of the incident was published in the Beijing Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese capital — more than 7 hours after the fire was extinguished and more than 5 hours after the end of the rescue effort.
In China’s social media, many have asked why the public was kept in the dark for so long.
“The incident happened after 12 p.m., and not a single media outlet reported the breaking news at the time,” said a long comment on Weibo, noting that most media outlets in the state only carry standardized press releases after 9 p.m.
“The media have become copy machines for standardized press releases,” it added.
Chinese social media platforms, which have been quick to spread information about similar incidents in the past, have been largely silent. about the fire all afternoon.
The control of information is especially important given the popularity of low-cost video platforms and livestreaming sites in China.
“It’s often said that back in the day when everyone had a microphone, it was hard to keep news from spreading, but now it seems like it’s not so hard after all,” said one Wechat commenter.
“Even if 21 people died, as long as (the authorities) don’t announce it, it’s like nothing happened in society,” said the commentator on Tuesday before the death toll jumped to 29.
In a brief news conference on Wednesday, officials revealed details of the deaths. Among them were 26 inpatients with an average age of 71. The oldest victim was 88. A nurse, a care worker and a family also died in the fire, according to Li Zongrong, deputy head of Fengtai district government.
A total of 142 people were evacuated, including 71 patients. As of Wednesday, 39 injured remain in hospital, with three in critical condition, said Li Ang, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Heath Commission.
Family members of patients at Changfeng Hospital said that despite the tragedy, they did not notice.
On Tuesday night, some rushed to the hospital to find their loved ones after learning of it on the news, according to China Youth Daily, a state-run newspaper.
“Seven or eight hours passed and I didn’t get a single phone call,” a relative was quoted as saying.
But the hospital refused to give them a list of the names of the victims, and instead asked them to register their information and wait for an official announcement, the report said.
Following state media reports on the incident, discussions on social media remained tightly controlled. Footage and photos of the fire were censored in real time, it said posts critical to government fire management and subsequent censorship.
Many people asked why the incident did not become a trending topic on Weibo throughout Tuesday and Wednesday morning.
Some compared the fire’s limited social media visibility to the overwhelming coverage of a deadly explosion at a metal plant in Ohio in the US in February, which dominated Weibo trending topics for days.
On Wechat, a Beijing newspaper editor lamented the tightening grip of censorship and social control.
“The most terrible thing is not the death of 29 people, but eight hours of silence,” the editor wrote in a post.
“The former is an accident and dereliction of duty, while the latter is a deliberate act with full effort, to show recklessly his ability to control the social, treat us as deaf, blind, crazy and idle subjects. Accidents are preventable, but deliberate action becomes the norm.”