Why did the pig farm explode? Investigation and Supervision of Illegal Production of Fireworks and Explosion Accidents in Liling, Hunan | Fireworks and Firecrackers | Liling, Hunan

At around 4am on July 11th, an illegal fireworks and firecracker explosion occurred at a pig farm in Zhuhuashan Village, Banshan Town, Liling City, Hunan Province, resulting in 5 deaths and 2 missing persons. According to investigators, the owner of the pig farm involved in the case has been controlled by the public security organs.

Why did a fireworks explosion occur in a pig farm? Xinhua Vision reporters rushed to the scene of the accident to conduct an investigation.

"No one expected that fireworks and firecrackers would be produced inside."

Recently, the highest temperature in Zhuhuashan Village, Banshan Town has approached 37 degrees Celsius, and the meteorological department has issued a high temperature warning. According to local deployment, fireworks and firecracker production enterprises have gradually entered a high-temperature shutdown period.

At around 4am on the 11th, an explosion broke the silence of the night from a pig farm in the village. "In an instant, the window glass shattered, and the flames outside shot into the sky." A villager surnamed Liu, who lived more than a hundred meters away from the pig farm, recalled to reporters, "I thought there was an earthquake."

The reporter saw at the scene that several households in the surrounding area had severely deformed aluminum alloy doors and windows, with thick glass debris scattered at the door. The interior of the houses was in a mess, and there were cracks on the walls of the villagers' houses.

The reporter found that the pig farm where the explosion occurred was sandwiched between two mountains, with a very hidden geographical location. Nearby villagers said they haven't found any abnormalities in the pig farm on weekdays. Due to hygiene regulations and the high odor, outsiders generally do not approach. "I often see two cars parked at the entrance of the pig farm at night, but it's just that someone is playing mahjong. No one expected that fireworks and firecrackers would be produced inside," said a villager.

It is understood that this pig farm called "Minwang Ecological Breeding Farm" has been operating locally for many years, and the legal representative is Liu Moujun's wife.

After preliminary investigation, at the end of June this year, Liu Jun rented out a pig shed with only over 60 square meters in the pig farm to Li Mouzhong, a villager in a neighboring town, for illegal production of fireworks and firecrackers. They purchase raw materials from other places, go out day and night, organize workers to work all night, suspected of making small fireworks products commonly known as "dog tail grass".

An emergency management department official involved in the accident disposal estimated that "the explosive that triggered this explosion may have a weight of over 100 kilograms." The relevant person in charge of the Liling Public Security Bureau revealed that seven suspects, including Liu Moujun, have been under control, and Li Mouzhong died in the accident.

Expose multiple regulatory loopholes

The fireworks and firecracker industry is one of the pillar industries in Liling. Data shows that there are over 170 registered enterprises engaged in fireworks and firecracker production in the local area, with over 100000 employees.

Illegal production is a pain and risk point in the fireworks and firecracker industry. "Illegal workshops often have serious deficiencies in safety management and pose great risks." A regulatory official in the fireworks and firecracker industry said that there are strict requirements for enterprise factory construction, physical isolation in production processes, quantitative stacking of raw materials, and personnel holding certificates to work in safety production standards. For example, the amount of medicine processed at a time cannot exceed 3 kilograms, and single person single room operations are 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 the Liling Public Security Bureau, since the beginning of this year, Liling has solved 31 criminal cases of illegal manufacturing and storage of explosives, and taken 54 criminal coercive measures; In 2022, this set of data includes 59 cases and 88 people, respectively.

Why do violators take risks? A practitioner in the fireworks and firecracker industry said that compared to regular operations, illegal production saves various costs such as investment, factory construction, safety management, and tax payment, and the profit margin may be more than three times higher. The reporter learned from the public security and judicial organs that Li was sentenced in 2021 for illegally manufacturing and storing explosives. At the time of the accident, he was still on probation.

Several practitioners and regulators have reported that many fireworks and firecracker production companies are currently clearing their inventory, and some are betting on a good year-end market and taking advantage of the summer off-season to compete for production. Another regulatory official told reporters that workers in pig farms who illegally produce firecrackers may earn thousands of yuan per night.

It is worth noting that there are security loopholes in the supervision of fireworks and firecrackers at both ends of production and sales.

Several emergency management department officials have stated that although regulatory authorities require raw material manufacturers to strictly verify the safety production permit qualifications of the purchaser, there are still cases of exploiting loopholes through methods such as hanging certificates and falsifying certificates at the operational level. At the sales level, a common method used by illegal production workshops is to enter licensed manufacturers through "backdoors" to complete "transformation", or directly "copy" the outer packaging of legitimate manufacturers, steal their safety production license numbers, and flow into the wholesale market.

This accident also exposed some issues of strong concealment and difficult supervision in illegal production workshops. Police officers from Banshan Town Police Station stated that the illegal workshop hidden in the pig farm is located in a hidden location and only produces at night. The cadre in charge of safety production in Banshan Town said that they did not enter the pig farm for inspection before. This manual production of firecrackers does not use large equipment and has strong flexibility. Once the raw materials and products are removed, it is difficult for regulators to detect production traces.

In addition, a regulatory official pointed out that some grassroots units have not implemented their responsibilities strictly, and some even have interests involved. The investigation work is just a formality, forming a blind spot in supervision, allowing illegal production to take advantage of it.

Be wary of risks in hidden corners and improve grassroots joint prevention and control

On the 11th, the Emergency Management Department of Hunan Province held an emergency video conference on the "crackdown on illegal activities" and the supervision of fireworks and firecrackers safety in the province's safety production. On the 12th, Liling City launched the "crackdown on illegal production" campaign with fireworks and firecrackers, emphasizing the need for "strict investigation, crackdown, and management" of illegal production.

Liuyang and Liling in Hunan, Shangli in Jiangxi, and Wanzai in Jiangxi are the national fireworks and firecracker industry clusters, accounting for over 85% of the country's production, and are also key regulatory areas for the production of fireworks and firecrackers.

Several officials from public security and emergency management departments believe that there is currently a polarization in the supervision of the fireworks and firecracker industry: the supervision of formal production enterprises is becoming increasingly strict and standardized, while illegal production activities located in "hidden corners" are becoming increasingly hidden, and there are signs of spillover to non main production areas.

A cadre engaged in the supervision of the fireworks and firecracker industry said that in the past, most of the illegal production dens were located in abandoned residential buildings and factories in remote areas. With the increasing crackdown, these dens are constantly changing places and their mobility has greatly increased. "Some are produced in high-rise elevators and residential buildings, while others are produced in mobile trucks and cargo compartments. It is very difficult to detect and strike in a timely manner by 'shooting and changing places'."

"The illegal production of fireworks and firecrackers is also showing a trend of small-scale and fragmented organization of production. For example, in this pig farm, there is no electricity, no machinery, and no site selection. The technical threshold is low, and only a few experienced locals can engage in production," the official told reporters.

The interviewed emergency management department cadres suggested that the governance and crackdown on illegal production should focus on managing the "two ends" - on the raw material side, strengthen the crackdown on the illegal sale of explosive hazardous chemicals, and strictly implement the management of raw material flow; On the sales side, strengthen the supervision and inspection of the compliance of dealer operations. In short, let illegal production dens cut off their profit chains by preventing raw materials from entering and products from leaving.

On the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen the implementation of regulatory measures such as cross regional inspections and joint law enforcement in the main production areas of fireworks and firecrackers, accelerate the promotion of unified and standardized management systems, and carry out a "one game" governance of the flow of raw materials and products within the region.

The interviewed cadres also suggested that in response to the supervision of illegal production, the rights and responsibilities of various departments should be further clarified. It is possible to explore the establishment of a comprehensive linkage mechanism between public security, emergency management, market supervision and other departments, strengthen command and coordination, consolidate the regulatory responsibilities of each department, and form a joint regulatory force through continuous crackdowns and deterrence throughout the entire chain.

At the same time, it is necessary to promote the extension of safety supervision to grassroots safety supervision stations, village cadres, grid personnel, etc., establish a normalized mechanism for illegal production investigation, improve grassroots joint prevention and control mechanisms, increase the intensity of sudden and secret visits, and guard against cadres becoming "protective umbrellas".