BEIJING – A fire at a factory in China that killed 38 people, many of them women, was caused by electric welding that flouted regulations, local media said on Tuesday.

The fire broke out at Kaixinda Trading in Anyang, in the central province of Henan, on Monday afternoon and the fire department sent 63 vehicles to the scene, state broadcaster CCTV said.

“Public security, emergency response, municipal administration and power supply units rushed to the scene at the same time to carry out emergency handling and rescue work,” CCTV reported.

The broadcaster also said that two people were taken to the hospital for treatment with minor injuries. Two people are missing, it added. 

Psychological counsellors were on the scene for families of the victims, according to a government statement. 

Footage from the scene shared by state media showed thick plumes of black smoke from the fire, with at least two fire engines in position to battle the flames.

The fire was brought under control by 8pm and put out by midnight, CCTV said.

Many of the victims were women who made winter cotton clothes and pants at the factory, according to media reports.

The person-in-charge of Kaixinda, a small private firm, is in custody, CCTV reported.

Industrial accidents are common in China due to weak safety standards and corruption among officials tasked with enforcing them.

News of the Anyang fire followed reports of an explosion at a chemical factory in nearby Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, on Monday.

Videos posted on social media showed a fire at the industrial site spewing dense grey smoke into the sky. Other images showed nearby buildings strewn with shards of glass and frightened locals fleeing the blast.

“Personnel were dispatched to the scene, the fire was extinguished, and the human toll is not yet known,” Dahebao, an official daily based out of neighbouring Henan, reported on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.

In June, one person was killed and another injured in an explosion at a chemical plant in Shanghai.

The fire at a Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical plant in the outlying Jinshan district sent thick clouds of smoke over a vast industrial zone, as three fires blazed in separate locations, turning the sky black.

A gas blast, in 2021 killed 25 people and reduced several buildings to rubble in the central city of Shiyan.

In March 2019, an explosion at a chemical factory in Yancheng, located 260km from Shanghai, killed 78 people and devastated homes in a several-kilometre radius.

In 2015, a giant explosion in northern Tianjin at a chemical warehouse killed 165 people, one of China’s worst-ever industrial accidents. REUTERS, AFP