An 18-year-old Tibetan set himself ablaze on Monday while walking from a bridge to a Chinese office in Sichuan's Aba Autonomous Prefecture. The incident marks the third self-immolation in the past three days, and the 25th in the past 12 months - 18 of which proved fatal, including this latest case. more ›

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Earlier this morning, a deadly fire broke out at a hawker stall close to the Ladies' Market in Hong Kong's Mong Kok district. The death toll has risen to nine people with a dozen people seriously injured, while the Hong Kong Fire Services Department pulled up with 30 trucks on the scene to the tame the 50 flaming stalls. The fire still remains under investigation. more ›

A Tibetan activist group has released a video that purportedly shows the moment Palden Choetso, set herself on fire and burned to death in a widely publicised self-immolation protest in Sichuan on November 3. More here. more ›

Peter Foster of The Daily Telegraph breaks the story of a man who set himself on fire October 21 on Tiananmen Square, but the incident appeared nowhere in Chinese news media. Here's what happened according to a reader who witnessed the incident: more ›

Following eight self-immolations by Tibetan monks this year, a Tibetan nun has set herself on fire and died yesterday. This is believed to be the first case of a female self-immolation in the region. Via RFA:

Tenzin Wamgmo, about 20 years old, called for freedom in Tibet and the return of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader living in exile in India, before succumbing to her burns. more ›

A gas pipe on the corner of Taixing Road of Wujiang Road was accidentally broken by staff of the power company yesterday evening, leading to an explosion that quickly spread to JIA Hotel at 6.55pm last evening. Fortunately, nobody was hurt in the incident as the hotel was able to quickly evacuate all of its guests and diners. Firefighters arrived on the scene quickly and managed to put out the blaze within half an hour. Shanghaiist reader Sophie Friedman, who sent us these pictures of the building shortly afterwards, tells us the smell of gas reached as far as Jiangning Road, where she lives. more ›

A huge fire has broken out at a building (possibly JIA Hotel) on Wujiang Road, with six storeys of balconies up in flames. Eye witnesses in the neighbourhood report on Sina Weibo that a gas leak may have caused the explosion, and the entire area now reeks of gas. more ›

Around 6pm on September 17th, photos taken by numerous travelers showing thick black smoke outside Terminal 2 at Beijing International Airport began showing up around Weibo. more ›

That's what frantic Weibo users were speculating about on Saturday night when multiple photos were uploaded around 8pm showing what appeared to be plumes of smoke coming off the top of Shanghai's tallest building. Fire authorities' official response: "Nope, clouds." more ›

WARNING: You may find the images in this video disturbing. more ›

Is industrial safety standard reform going to happen anytime soon? Fires and other accidents certainly occur often enough: "At least 14 people were killed when a fire ripped through a dormitory building belonging to a ceramics factory in south China early Tuesday, the local government said. The blaze engulfed the building belonging to the Shengfeng Ceramics Factory in Foshan city, a manufacturing centre in China's southern Guangdong province, the local government said in a statement on its website. The fire took three hours to extinguish, leaving 14 people dead and two others seriously wounded, the statement said, without identifying the victims. According to the People's Daily website, two people were killed when they leapt from the windows of the building. The cause of the blaze is under investigation, the People's Daily report said." [AFP]. more ›

(Warning: gallery contains graphic imagery) 41 passengers perished in a bus fire that occurred outside of Xinyang city (信阳) in Henan province at approximately 4am today. 47 passengers were on board an overcrowded double-decker overnight bus designed to seat 35, with the six survivors all having suffered burns to various degrees. At least one survivor is in a critical condition at a nearby hospital. more ›

It looks like even our public transport can barely stand the heat. At approximately noon yesterday, a section of the number 825 bus spontaneously combusted near Zhongshan Park (中山公园) in the Changning district (长宁区) of Shanghai. The incident occurred at 999 Changning Road (长宁路) while the bus was stationary and parked by the roadside. No passengers were on board the bus when the fire broke out, according to eyewitnesses. The fire was extinguished by 12:45 pm. more ›

Five are standing trial today for last year's deadly blaze that claimed 58 lives and cost what the city claims to be 158RMB million in damage. Two officials from the Jing'an District Construction and the Transport Committee and two of their subordinates are being charged with abuse of power and taking bribes, as is the manager of the Jinshan Tianyi Construction Material Department. 26 people total are to face criminal charges in association with the fire. more ›

"A total of 29 people have died in fires this year and the city has recorded 2,551 blazes since New Year, the Shanghai Fire Control Bureau said today. More than 50 percent of the fires happened in residential buildings which will be the main target for the bureau's fire prevention checks. The city will also upgrade its firefighting equipment and facilities. According to the bureau, misuse of gas and electric appliances accounted for about half of all the fire causes. In the wake of last November's deadly high-rise inferno which claimed 58 lives and gutted the building on Jiaozhou Road, Shanghai authorities launched citywide fire safety checks in construction sites, shopping centers and other workplaces. They shut down 378 businesses and detained 622 people for violating fire control regulations. The bureau said each Shanghai household will receive a brochure on firefighting and escape skills by the end of June and all the residents will be organized to participate in fire drills this year." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

• A fire in a four-story clothing factory in Beijing early this morning killed 17 and injured at least 24 in yet another tragedy caused by illegal construction practices. Those killed were all migrant workers.
• Rescue workers are scrambling to reach eight miners trapped underground after an explosion rocked their facility in Guizhou this morning.
• An explosion in a pesticide plant in Guangxi caused three known injuries. Fires engulfed 3,000 meters and two warehouses. Two harmful chemicals have been confirmed on site, and authorities have cordoned off the factory awaiting further tests.

At about 2pm today, the Shanghai Telecom Building on Wusheng Road near People's Square caught fire and cased an explosion, killing four people. From Shanghai Daily: "Rescue efforts are continuing in the Shanghai Telecom Building at 333 Wusheng Road, according to the Shanghai TV breaking news. More then 10 fire engines have arrived at the scene. The area has been cordoned off to traffic. The fire reportly broke out around 2pm but smoke was trapped in the building and failed to cause alarm on the outside, witnesses said. The fire was put out by 3pm and its cause is immediately unknown." more ›

"A logistics warehouse in Pudong New Area caught fire around noon today, spewing black smoke into the sky. Firefighters arrived shortly and put out the flames after battling it for nearly two hours. No casualties have been reported in the blaze that started at about 12:30pm and consumed a warehouse building at 8 Xiangyangxu Road in Heqing Town. Local police advised drivers to avoid the affected area in the afternoon. Burning plastic products piled in the warehouse gave off dense smoke that billowed into the sky and could be seen from high-rises in the downtown area. Pudong environmental authorities have reached the scene to test for potential environmental hazards from the fire." more ›

24 people are to be prosecuted over the fire that killed 58 and injured 71 in November of last year. Among the charged are government officials, welders, construction supervisors and the heads of the construction company itself. Charges include bribery, neglect and illegal contracting. more ›

At 5am on Monday morning a forest fire broke out 30 km away from historically-preserved Lijiang in Yunnan province, sparking worries that the popular tourism destination could be in danger. A force of 400 fire prevention workers and two helicopters moved in to control the blaze, but high winds on Monday postponed containment efforts. Thanks to the hard work of many, by early this afternoon the fire had been effectively put out! Special thanks also to this Sina microblogger, who supplied us (and most of the Chinese media!) with updates and photos of fire. Causes of the fire are still under investigation. more ›

It isn't everyday that we get to show you what fireworks can actually do to a building, so here you go. That's what the Dynasty Wanxin Hotel, the tallest building in Shenyang (and possibly the tallest in all of the northeast), looks like today after stray Chinese New Year fireworks gutted it last week. more ›

Another day, another building on fire. This time, the victim is the historic Fahai Temple in downtown Fuzhou, capital of Fujian Province, built over a thousand years ago in 945. No casualties were reported in the fire, which was put out by a team of 150 firefighters in an hour (armed by the jet-powered water cannon, perhaps?). None of the cultural relics in the temple were said to be burnt, although looking at these pictures, we can't say we can be sure of that. more ›

People, what did we just tell you about being careful with fireworks? A damper was put on new year celebrations in Shenyang after fireworks burnt down a 5-star hotel. The Dynasty Wanxin building complex, located on Qingnian Street of Heping District, was comprised of three towers -- the fire quickly engulfed Tower A and B and gutted them but left Tower C intact. It broke out just thirteen minutes after midnight at Tower B, the apartment section of the Dynasty Wanxin complex and quickly spread to the neighboring Tower A which housed their 5-star hotel. more ›

Here is a stunning set of pictures that we missed earlier, but thought we'd share anyway. The photographs were taken by Oriental Morning Post journalists Liu Xingzhe and Lu Haitao just right after the Jingan fire had been put out and while the building was still smouldering. more ›

Check out this nifty machine bought recently by the fire department of Luoyang in Henan province. It's a little monster that Shanghai should have had to fight against that catastrophic Jingan fire late last year. Built especially to fight high-rise fires, the RMB3 million ($456,000) jet-powered water cannon can spew up to 4 tonnes of water per minute at a range of 50 metres. If the city had invested in this little machine ahead of time, imagine how many more lives we would have been able to save? more ›

Uh oh. Shanghai's first capsule hotel has been stopped from officially opening for business "due to fire safety and security concerns". Officers inspecting the hotel have said there is a fire risk because of the high density of people expected in the 300 square metre, 68-capsule hotel, said Xia Quangen, owner of the property, to Shanghai Daily. more ›

The 156 households that fell victim to the apartment building fire on November 15 will soon be allowed back into their homes to claim undamaged possessions and evaluate their losses. The companies held responsible for the fire will pay for valuation services, and once their losses have been calculated they may negotiate for compensation. At that point, if the families are still not satisfied, they may then then bring lawsuits. However, many say that property is not the issue. Some families who lost relatives in the fire have filed a petition for further investigations into the fire and have refused to accept compensation (960,000 RMB per victim) until the government responds accordingly. more ›