The Chinese capital of Beijing held a series of fire control promotions and training sessions on Saturday to mark the Fire Control and Safety Day.
The fire awareness training is also a bid by the authorities to create a safer environment in the city for the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which opens in Beijing on Nov. 8.
City firemen showed residents how to put out and survive fires, especially those caused by electrical home appliances and liquefied petroleum gas.
The government also urged people to clear away combustible materials from communities.
The city recorded 4,152 fires in the first nine months of this year, 6.8 percent up from the same period last year. The fires killed 53 people, almost tripling the figure in the same period last year, and injured 76 others, down 11.6 percent.
The same fires caused losses worth 9.12 million yuan, 2.5 percent lower than during the same period last year.
(People's Daily November 4, 2002)
