Zhejiang Warehouse Inferno: Factory Fire Kills Four Night Workers, Smoke Inhalation Blamed, Investigation Underway

Hangzhou, China— Four workers are dead after a warehouse fire inside a factory complex in Zhejiang province filled the building with thick smoke overnight and trapped them inside.

The fire broke out at 1:15 a.m. Saturday in a single-story warehouse storing packaging materials and chemical adhesives at an industrial park outside Ningbo. The night shift was packing orders. Six workers were inside.

Flames moved fast across cardboard stacks. But it was the smoke that killed. Black, acrid smoke from burning adhesives dropped visibility to zero in minutes. The roller door jammed. Two workers escaped through a side exit. Four did not.

Firefighters arrived in 11 minutes and pulled the two survivors out coughing. Inside, they found the other four near the back wall, close to where a second exit should have been. That exit was blocked by pallets.

“There was no alarm sound,” one survivor told paramedics. “The lights went out and smoke came down from the ceiling. We could not find the door.”

China News Service said the factory operated on a 24-hour schedule to meet export orders. Preliminary investigation showed the warehouse had no automatic sprinkler system and its smoke detectors had dead batteries. A safety inspector said the blocked exit violated fire codes.

The factory owner was taken into custody for questioning. The industrial park management said it had cited the company twice this year for storage violations. Workers said fire drills had not been held in months.

Hospitals treated the two survivors for smoke inhalation and minor burns. Both are stable. The bodies of the four victims were sent for autopsy to confirm smoke inhalation as the cause. Their ages ranged from 23 to 46.

Provincial work safety officials ordered a province-wide check of night-shift operations and warehouse storage practices.

The warehouse remains sealed as fire investigators collect samples and review surveillance footage.