Chunjie Casualty List: Fires, Deaths & Eye Ball Removals

Disappointingly CCTV again failed to deliver a spectacle to match the amazing fireball extravaganza of 2009 that saw the station sacrifice their own building in downtown Beijing for the sake of Chinese New Year festivities – but that doesn’t mean this year’s holiday hasn’t seen its fair share of human and architectural casualties.

According to Xinhua, “China's Spring Festival fireworks setting frenzy caused 194 fires in Beijing in the first six days of the week-long holiday, which was 99 more than in the same period last year.” Way to go Beijing! There were also 388 firework-related injuries in the city (including one casualty who apparently “received an eyeball removal surgery”) and at least two fatalities.

As BeijingKids reporter Charlotte Moreau noted earlier this week, one of Beijing’s firework-related deaths occurred up at Shunyi in the Dynasty Garden Villa. Management were unwilling to divulge details, but it’s rumored the casualty was a local employee of someone who lives in the complex.

Outside of Beijing, the biggest Spring Festival casualty in terms of buildings seems to have been the five-star Dynasty Wanxin Hotel in Shenyang, Liaoning, which was gutted by fire last week. Xinhua quoted a police spokesman as saying, “Sparks from fireworks ignited a plastic lawn on a flat roof on the 11th floor of Tower B and the flames quickly spread.” Amazingly no casualties were reported.

Across China the New York Times reports that, “During the first 32 hours of the holiday officials tallied nearly 6,000 fires.”

The NYT report continues, “In the eastern province of Zhejiang, six people were killed in a forest fire that officials say was sparked by carousing villagers. Officials also suspect that fireworks set off the blaze that blackened parts of a historic town in Chongqing and another that consumed a 1,000-year-old Buddhist temple in Fujian Province.”

The New York Times claims that last year locals spent over US$3 billion on fireworks – which means around RMB19 billion went up in smoke. No figures have been published for the amount spent so far in 2011.

We’re only two-thirds of the way through the new year celebrations, which traditionally conclude with the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the lunar calendar. This year the day falls on next Thursday, February 17. Fireworks within Beijing’s Fifth Ring are prohibited between midnight and 7am until then, and are banned altogether after the 17th until the madness recommences next year. But before then expect a few more fires, scorched hands and “eye removal surgeries.”