Fireworks and firecrackers exploded in Heng County in 1996

That day happened to be the festival day. There were one after another open-air temporary firecracker stalls on Baohua Road, several hundred meters long, and there were huge crowds of people buying firecrackers. At about 1:10 noon, an eighty-nine-year-old boy tried setting off firecrackers at the Baohua intersection and accidentally ignited the firecrackers at the firecracker stall next to him. When the fire started, the nearby stall owners were still watching the jokes of their colleagues and were not at all defensive. Unexpectedly, all kinds of skycrackers and fireworks were ignited, flying around, igniting various firecracker stalls. Suddenly, there was a huge explosion, shattering all the glass windows within a few hundred meters, and the fire and thick smoke rushed up to dozens of meters. high altitude. The flying firecrackers jumped into the curtains, furniture, and electrical appliance shops on both sides, and nearly 20 shops caught fire. Within a few minutes, Baohua Road had turned into a sea of ??flames. People at the scene ran away in all directions. A man who was on fire desperately rushed out of the sea of ????fire and ran straight to the health center.

Shortly after the explosion, the power supply department shut down the power and the fire brigade also brought two fire trucks. However, due to insufficient water pressure, the fire was not controlled until the water company added pressure. The person in charge of the Hengxian Public Security Fire Brigade told reporters at the scene that when firefighters arrived at the scene, they braved flying firecrackers and raging fires to save the people. Firefighters first discovered that seven or eight people were trapped in two stores in the north. They immediately suppressed the fire with water hoses and protected the people in the store from rushing out of the flames. About an hour later, the fire was finally put out. After inspection, it was found that the big explosion reduced more than 30 temporary fireworks and firecracker stalls to ashes, more than ten street-facing shops were burned, and the entire building of a furniture store was burned to scorched earth. Five burnt corpses were found huddled together in Li Zhuangjia Electric City. Although their appearance and gender were difficult to distinguish, it could still be seen that they were two adults tightly protecting three children.

At the county hospital, the reporter saw that the seriously injured man had received timely assistance. The man suffered burns covering 40% of his body, and his face, neck, hands and buttocks were all blurred. However, shock did not occur and the injury was temporarily stable. After the accident, the main leaders of the Hengxian County Party Committee and County Government quickly rushed to the scene to direct the rescue and deal with the aftermath, and required that normal water supply, power supply and smooth communication be restored before 9 p.m. that night. When the reporter left the scene at 6 p.m., the cleanup work was still in progress.