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Relatives hug each other Monday after a deadly fire in a poultry plant at Dehui, in northeast China’s Jilin province.
SHANGHAI—At least 119 people were killed and dozens injured in a fire at a chicken slaughterhouse in northern China, according to provincial officials, the latest reminder of the country’s poor industrial-safety record.
Chinese state media quoted workers saying that all but one of the doors to the plant were typically locked from the outside.
A deadly fire at a Chinese poultry factory underscores growing concerns about China’s food-production regulations. The WSJ’s Carlos Tejada discusses the latest scrutiny of China’s industrial oversight.
The fire at the facility in Jilin province came as American regulators and consumers begin to scrutinize a bid by Chinese food company Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. to buy U.S. pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc. SFD +0.12%One concern is how Chinese ownership of the No. 1 global pork producer might affect U.S. food security.
Timeline: Industrial Disasters in Asia
Industrial accidents have gone hand in hand with China’s emergence as a world powerhouse in production—including of food. While poor factory safety doesn’t necessarily equate to unsafe food, industry officials say workplace problems of any kind around food raise risks it will be contaminated during processing.
Provincial officials say an ammonia leak sparked an explosion that led to the fire in the facilities of Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Co. For hours after the early morning blast north of the provincial capital Changchun, rescuers located bodies in the charred buildings. The flammable chemical ammonia is often used in refrigeration systems. Company officials couldn’t be reached for comment.
Chinese industrial accidents have killed over 70,000 people in each of the past two years alone, according to official figures. Less than two months ago at a pork processor in south China, for example, around 400 people were endangered by an ammonia leak like the one blamed for Monday’s fire, according to the state-controlled news agency Xinhua.
China Central Television, the government broadcaster, said Monday’s blast affected an area of 17,000 square meters, or around 183,000 square feet.
"In my memory, this is the most serious accident in the meat-processing sector," said He Zhonghua, an analyst with China Meat Industry Network, a consultancy owned by the semiofficial China Meat Industry Association.
China’s food industry can anticipate a new level of attention from U.S. legislators, regulators and consumers following Shuanghui’s deal for Virginia-based pork producer Smithfield Foods. The $4.7 billion buyout offer, potentially the biggest Chinese takeover of a U.S. company, is subject to regulatory approval.
Xinhua/Sipa Press
People wait for news of their relatives after a fire that killed at least 119 people in a poultry slaughterhouse in Dehui in northern China Monday.
The Chinese suitor said last week when the deal was announced that it hopes to learn from Smithfield’s production processes, not impose its own on the U.S. business. People involved in the deal said it could open China’s market more to Smithfield sausage, hams and other meat, instead of paving the way for broadening channels into the U.S. for the Chinese company’s products.
Away from the factory floor, worries about unsafe poultry are already high in China. In early April, Chinese health officials reported an outbreak of a new strain of avian flu in chickens and ducks; though Chinese authorities say risks to humans have diminished, they haven’t permitted sales of fresh poultry in some Chinese cities. Late last year, U.S. fast-food groups Yum Brands Inc. YUM +1.86%and McDonald’s Corp. MCD +1.44%were accused by Chinese media of selling chicken that had been raised with unsafe levels of antibiotics. Both companies said they would strengthen supervision of suppliers.
More broadly, industrial accidents in China are taking on increasing resonance for U.S. companies and consumers. After explosions of combustible dust at two Apple Inc. AAPL +0.22%suppliers in China that left four dead and at least 59 injured in 2011, the U.S. computer maker last year said it issued new guidelines for its contractors for handling the material.
The plant that caught fire on Monday illustrates the challenge to imposing uniform safety standards on China’s fragmented and fast-expanding food business.
Thousands of families raise chickens in the city of Dehui, where the plant is located, not far from the North Korean border. Dehui pitches itself as a broiler city. In a popular series of art works, Canadian Edward Burtynsky drew attention to Dehui’s vast chicken-production facilities in photographs showing thousands of poultry workers in a single room, all wearing pink overalls and blue aprons.
The northern region around Dehui is sometimes called the Iowa of China. But four-year-old Baoyuanfeng, like many companies in China’s food industry, is relatively small, with a processing capacity of 100,000 birds a day, according to a profile of the company published on a local website. Mr. He, the consultant, said he expects China’s poultry business to face new pressure to consolidate smaller operators into bigger ones that are easier to monitor.
—Zhoudong Shangguan and Yang Jie in Beijing contributed to this article.
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