China sentences 6 in nightclub fire that killed 44 (5:19 p.m.)
BEIJING — China has sentenced six people, including two former police officers and a firefighter, to jail for a nightclub fire that killed 44 people in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen, state media reported.
The fire Sept. 20 started when a fireworks performance ignited flammable material on the ceiling of a club in Longgang district of the city of Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong.
Yang Zhouwu, the former chief of the Tongle police station, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for taking bribes worth 300,000 yuan ($43,865) from the King of the Dancers nightclub and for dereliction of duty, the official Xinhua News Agency said late Friday.
Over 300 people were in the club when the fire started and 64 were injured in an ensuing stampede, Xinhua said. The hall of the nightclub was on the third floor of a marketplace and was accessible from the staircase by only a narrow passageway, state media reported last year.
Chen Feng, the former head of the local firefighting squad, and former policeman Liu Libiao, were both sentenced to six years in jail for dereliction of duty, Xinhua said. The others received jail terms between one to five years, it said.
Fires and accidents in bars, theaters and other public places are common in China despite government pledges to improve safety. Many are caused by negligence and lax safety procedures, such as a lack of fire extinguishers and emergency exits.
In China’s worst nightclub disaster in recent years, a fire blamed on a welding accident tore through a disco in the central city of Luoyang in December 2000, killing 309 people. (AP)
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