On August 20th, a netizen posted a video claiming that a major fire had broken out at Baosteel in Shanghai, with thick smoke billowing and spreading several kilometers.
The video showed thick smoke billowing at the scene, with a large fire visible and the sound of fire alarms in the background.
In the afternoon of August 20th, the Baoshan Fire Department in Shanghai issued a fire incident report stating that at 16:20 on August 20th, a fire broke out near Wei Wu Road in the vicinity of the first factory building on Jingwu Road in Baoshan District. The fire was extinguished by 17:06 with no casualties reported, and the cause of the fire is under further investigation. The report did not specify the name of the factory.
On August 21st, the official Weibo account of Jiefang Daily, “Micro Shanghai,” reported on the fire, but also did not mention the name of the factory. Other mainland media outlets have remained silent on the matter.
According to comments left by several netizens in the video section, it was reported that the “pickling tank at Baosteel’s precision steel pipe factory caught fire.” One netizen mentioned, “It happened right next to our construction site, and work was suspended for inspection yesterday.” Another netizen noted, “No wonder we heard fire trucks one after another.”
Currently, there are very few related videos available online, suggesting possible restrictions. According to netizens, “Baosteel has stricter management, so news reports are usually not seen.” Some mentioned, “People who posted videos yesterday were summoned today.” “Such incidents are usually subject to information control, and it’s difficult to upload on-site videos, as they will be automatically taken down.”