On May 30th at noon, a fire broke out at the Traffic Building in Baoding City, Hebei Province. The fire was fierce, with thick smoke billowing into the sky. Earlier that morning, there was a suicide attempt by jumping off a building at Wanbo Square in Baoding, marking the second incident of its kind within a week.
Videos of the fire at the Traffic Building in Baoding circulated widely on Chinese social media today (30th). The footage shows thick smoke engulfing the scene as many onlookers watched from a distance. Multiple fire trucks were on the scene trying to put out the fire, but the fire was on the rooftop where the water from the fire trucks couldn’t reach, and the blaze grew increasingly intense.
A local resident from Hebei, Yang Sheng (pseudonym), told Epoch Times that there weren’t many people around during the fire as it was lunchtime and fewer people were present. He mentioned that there were no ambulances in sight. The fire was significant mainly because the top floor housed a warehouse. Yang mentioned that the fire likely started due to the asphalt used for waterproofing on the roof, which ignited in high temperatures. The accumulation of garbage and debris in the corridors and on the rooftop further fueled the fire. Initial estimates suggest losses amounting to millions of yuan. Yang quoted construction workers stating that it would cost at least several million yuan but couldn’t confirm the exact evaluation.
Following the fire, roads around the Traffic Building were blocked, and vehicles had to take detours.
In the afternoon, the Baoding City Fire Rescue Brigade issued a statement that they received an alarm at 12:03 on May 30th reporting the fire at the Traffic Building on Chaoyang Street. By 13:25, the fire was extinguished with no casualties, and investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing.
Yang mentioned that two incidents occurred in the local area that day. One in the morning at Wanbo Square, where a person committed suicide by jumping off a building allegedly due to owing the bank 20 million yuan. The other incident was the fire at the Baoding City Traffic Bureau.
Yang stated that the local government in Baoding is likely to crack down on various social emergencies such as suicides and fires and ramp up stability maintenance efforts. He described the atmosphere in the area as tense, comparing it to security measures similar to those seen before the Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee.