China to assess local govt on fire prevention

BEIJING - As a move to step up prevention of fire accidents, China has decided to include provincial governments' work in this regard as a key gauge for judging provincial chiefs' performance.

According to a new set of regulations issued recently by the State Council, or China's Cabinet, central authorities will conduct a field evaluation on provincial governments' work to ensure fire safety in the region under their jurisdiction each year.

This is the first time that a Chinese official document clearly links fire protection work to provincial governments' performance evaluations, said a statement from the Ministry of Public Security on Tuesday.

The ministry will work with a number of other central government departments to conduct the evaluation by the end of April each year, the statement said, adding that a first evaluation will take place in early 2014.

The move is intended to increase local governments' awareness of responsibility in preventing fire accidents, woo more efforts in increasing local firefighting capacities, and properly treat those industries and aspects prone to fire accidents, the ministry said.

It added that around 80 percent of fire accidents in recent years in China were man-made.

Currently, more than 160 counties in China have yet to establish firefighting inspection departments and around 260 counties have no professional firefighting forces.