"Tragic School Residence Fire in China Claims At Least 13 Lives"

According to state media reports, a fire in a school residence in central China resulted in at least 13 fatalities. The blaze broke out at approximately 11 p.m. local time at Yingcai School, near the city of Nanyang in Henan province, as originally reported by Xinhua. Local authorities stated that, in addition to the fatalities, one individual suffered injuries and was receiving treatment at a hospital. The fire was extinguished by firefighters prior to 11:38 p.m., according to state media. The cause of the fire is currently being investigated by local authorities, who have also detained a "school official" as part of their investigation. An account from a student detailed to the state newspaper Beijing Youth Daily, revealed how they were awakened in the middle of the night by a teacher and told to escape as the smell of smoke filled the air. Parents who spoke to the newspaper indicated that boarding school students are allowed to return home once every ten days, for a period of four days. One parent mentioned that the pupils had exams prior to the start of their holiday next week. The fire incident has become a much-discussed topic on the Chinese social networking platform Weibo, comparable to Twitter, where more than 16 million people had read about the incident by Saturday afternoon. A user with over 920,000 followers pinpointed that the fire incident occurred just days before the Chinese New Year school holidays, a period when students typically return home to spend time with their families. The user wrote, "The upcoming Spring Festival is a time for family reunion. Such a tragedy will bring great pain to these 13 families." Another user advocated for accountability, expressing hope for the cause of the fire to be discovered.