Chen Yao, Tianjin
The Laide building was one of Ji County’s biggest shopping centers. June 30, 2012 was a Saturday, and Laide was holding a promotion, so there were huge numbers of customers. Some time after 3:00 that afternoon, the building suddenly caught fire. The boss, afraid that in the chaos customers would take things or not pay, closed and shuttered the main entrance on level one, and drove customers to the second and third floors. What hadn’t been anticipated was that the fire grew fiercer and fiercer, eventually becoming completely uncontrollable. The electricity across the whole building went out. From the first floor to the fourth, the lifts were out of order, and the closed entrance on the first floor couldn’t be opened. Black smoke rolled through the whole building, sparks flew up into the air. Huge flames leapt from every window, the smoke covered the county, the air was choking for people several hundred meters away. At the time many of the people trapped above the third floor chose to flee by jumping from the building, and some died where they fell, a horrible sight.
