There was an explosion in the pig farm？ Investigation on the explosion accident of illegal fireworks production in Liling, Hunan Province
Xinhua News Agency, Changsha, July 13th Question: Why did the pig farm explode? — — Investigation on the explosion accident of illegal fireworks production in Liling, Hunan Province
Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters Xi Min, Xie Ben and Liu Fangzhou
At 4 o’clock in the morning of July 11th, an explosion accident of illegally producing fireworks and firecrackers occurred in a pig farm in Zhuhuashan Village, Banshan Town, Liling City, Hunan Province, killing five people and losing two people. According to investigators, the pig farmers involved have been controlled by public security organs.
Why did fireworks explode in the pig farm? Xinhua Viewpoint reporter rushed to the scene of the accident to investigate.
"No one expected that fireworks and firecrackers would be produced inside."
Recently, the highest temperature in Zhuhuashan Village of Banshan Town approached 37 degrees Celsius, and the meteorological department issued a high temperature warning. According to the local deployment, fireworks and firecrackers production enterprises have successively entered the high-temperature shutdown period.
At 4 o’clock in the morning on the 11th, a pig farm in the village exploded, breaking the silence at night. "In an instant, the window glass shattered and the fire was shining outside." The villager surnamed Liu, who lives more than 100 meters away from the pig farm, recalled to the reporter, "I thought it was an earthquake."
On the 11th, villagers were cleaning up the damaged doors and windows. (Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Benshe)
The reporter saw at the scene that the aluminum alloy doors and windows of several surrounding villagers’ houses had been severely deformed, and thick glass crumbs were scattered at the door of the house, and the interior of the house was in a mess, and cracks appeared in the walls of villagers’ houses.
The reporter found that the pig farm where the explosion occurred was sandwiched between two mountains, and its geographical location was very hidden. The surrounding villagers said that there was nothing unusual in the pig farm on weekdays. In view of the hygiene regulations and the strong odor, outsiders generally do not approach. "I often see two cars parked at the gate of the pig farm at night, but only when someone comes to play mahjong, no one expected that fireworks and firecrackers would be produced inside." A villager said.
This is the scene of the accident filmed by the reporter on July 11th. (Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Benshe)
It is understood that this pig farm named "Minwang Ecological Farm" has been operating in the local area for many years, and the legal representative is Liu Moujun’s wife.
After preliminary investigation, at the end of June this year, Liu Moujun rented a pig shed with only 60 square meters in the pig farm to Li Mouzhong, a villager in a neighboring town, for illegal fireworks production. They bought raw materials from other places, stayed up all night, organized workers to work all night, and were suspected of making small fireworks products commonly known as "foxtail".
An emergency management cadre who participated in the accident handling estimated: "The explosive that caused this explosion may be more than 100 kilograms." The relevant person in charge of Liling Public Security Bureau revealed that seven suspects, including Liu Moujun, had been under control and Li Mouzhong was killed in the accident.
Expose multiple regulatory loopholes
Fireworks and firecrackers industry is one of the pillar industries in Liling. The data shows that there are more than 170 registered enterprises engaged in fireworks production in the local area, with more than 100,000 employees.
Illegal production is the pain point and risk point of fireworks and firecrackers industry. "Illegal workshops often have serious defects in safety management and are extremely dangerous." A supervision cadre of fireworks and firecrackers industry said that the relevant safety production norms have strict requirements on the construction of factory buildings, physical isolation of production links, quantitative stacking of raw materials, and personnel holding certificates. For example, the amount of processed drugs should not exceed 3 kg at a time, and single-person single-room operation should be implemented. However, the hardware facilities and personnel quality of illegal workshops are far from meeting the requirements.
Although the relevant departments have made great efforts to control it, the illegal production of fireworks and firecrackers has been repeatedly banned. According to the statistics of Liling Public Security Bureau, Liling has detected 31 criminal cases of illegally manufacturing and storing explosives this year, and 54 people have taken criminal compulsory measures. In 2022, this group of data was 59 and 88 respectively.
Why do offenders take risks? A practitioner in the fireworks and firecrackers industry said that compared with regular operation, illegal production saves many costs such as investment and factory construction, safety management and tax payment, and the profit rate may be more than three times higher. The reporter learned from the public security and judicial organs that Li Mouzhong was sentenced for illegally manufacturing and storing explosives in 2021. When the accident occurred, he was still on probation.
Many practitioners and regulators have reported that many fireworks manufacturers have emptied their inventories, and some people "bet" on the good market at the end of the year and use the off-season in summer to "grab production". Another person from the regulatory authorities told reporters that the wages of workers who illegally produce firecrackers in pig farm workshops may reach thousands of yuan per night.
It is worth noting that there are security loopholes in the "two ends" supervision of fireworks and firecrackers in production and sales.
A number of emergency management department cadres said that although the regulatory authorities require raw material manufacturers to strictly verify the buyer’s safety production license qualification, there are many cases of "taking advantage of loopholes" in the operation level, such as hanging certificates and forging certificates. At the sales level, one of the usual means of illegal production workshops is to enter the licensed manufacturer through the back door to complete the transformation, or directly "fake" the outer packaging of the regular manufacturer, steal its safety production license number and flow into the wholesale market.
The accident also exposed some problems that illegal production workshops are concealed and difficult to supervise. The police of Banshan Town Police Station said that the illegal workshop hidden in the pig farm was hidden and only produced at night. The cadre in charge of safety production in Banshan Town said that he had never entered the pig farm for investigation before. This method of artificial production of firecrackers does not use large equipment and is very flexible. Once the raw materials and products are removed, it is difficult for regulators to find traces of production.
In addition, a cadre of the supervision department pointed out that some grass-roots units are not strictly responsible, and some even have interests involved. The investigation work is a mere formality, forming a blind spot for supervision and allowing illegal production to take advantage of it.
Be alert to risks in hidden corners and improve joint prevention and control at the grass-roots level.
On the 11th, the Emergency Management Department of Hunan Province held an emergency video conference on "illegal production" and safety supervision of fireworks and firecrackers in the province. On the 12th, Liling launched the "crackdown on illegal production" campaign, emphasizing "strict investigation, crackdown and strict control" on illegal production.
Liuyang and Liling in Hunan, Shangli and Wanzai in Jiangxi, four counties and cities are national fireworks and firecrackers industrial clusters, accounting for more than 85% of the country’s output, and are also key supervision areas for the production of fireworks and firecrackers.
Many cadres of public security and emergency management departments believe that the supervision of fireworks and firecrackers industry is polarized at present: the supervision of formal production enterprises is more and more strict and standardized, while the illegal production activities in "hidden corners" are more and more hidden, and there are signs of spillover to non-main production areas.
A cadre engaged in the supervision of fireworks and firecrackers industry said that in the past, illegal production dens were mostly located in abandoned houses and factories in remote areas. With the increasing crackdown, these dens kept changing places and their mobility was greatly improved. "Some are produced in high-rise elevator houses, and some are produced in the freight compartment of trucks, ‘ Shoot a gun and change a place ’ It is very difficult to find and attack in time. "
"The illegal production of fireworks and firecrackers also shows a trend of small-scale and fragmented organization production. For example, this pig farm den does not need electricity, machinery, and venues. The technical threshold is low, and a few experienced locals can engage in production. " The cadre told reporters.
The cadres of the emergency management department interviewed suggested that we should focus on the "two ends" in controlling and cracking down on illegal production — — On the raw material side, strengthen the crackdown on illegal sales of dangerous chemicals that are easy to explode, and strictly implement the management of raw material flow; On the sales side, strengthen the supervision and inspection of dealers’ operating compliance. In short, let the illegal production dens "raw materials can’t enter, products can’t go out" and cut off their interest chain.
On the other hand, we should strengthen the implementation of regulatory measures such as cross-regional inspection and joint law enforcement in the main producing areas of fireworks and firecrackers, accelerate the promotion of a unified and standardized management system, and carry out a "chess game" management of the flow of raw materials and products in the region.
The interviewed cadres also suggested that for illegal production supervision, the relationship between powers and responsibilities of various departments should be further clarified. We can explore the establishment of a comprehensive linkage mechanism between public security, emergency management, market supervision and other departments, strengthen command and coordination, and compact the supervision responsibilities of various departments, so as to form a joint force of supervision through continuous attacks on the upstream and downstream of the whole chain.
At the same time, it is necessary to promote the safety supervision force to extend to grass-roots safety supervision stations, village cadres, grid workers, etc., establish a normalized illegal production investigation mechanism, improve the joint prevention and control mechanism at the grass-roots level, increase the intensity of surprise visits and unannounced visits, and guard against cadres becoming "protective umbrellas."