HENAN - The authorities in central China’s Henan Province on Jan 21 were looking into the cause of a night-time fire that killed 13 schoolchildren as they slept in a dormitory.

The inferno, which took place at the Yingcai School in Yanshanpu village, was reported to the local fire department at 11pm on Jan 19 and was put out around 40 minutes later, official news agency Xinhua said.

Thirteen students died in the incident, while one other person suffered injuries.

Dozens of police were in and around a cordoned-off area near the school on Jan 21 morning, AFP journalists saw.

An official at the scene told AFP: “There is an investigation ongoing inside. Nobody can go in.”

Several windows on the side of the school were broken – the only obvious signs of a major incident at the building.

Vertical metal bars covered the school’s windows, AFP saw, while a permanent sign on the building’s facade read: “Enter the kindergarten happily and go home happily.”

A teacher at the school told state-run Hebei Daily that all the victims were from the same third-grade class of nine- and 10-year-olds.

On Jan 21 morning, a row of shops next to the school stood mostly shuttered, while a small clinic in a crumbling courtyard building appeared unattended.

A few locals went about their day and a couple of children played as police cars made loops around the cordoned-off area.

Some people passing by on Jan 21 morning stared at the scene, and one man at an auto workshop across the street told AFP that he had been unaware of the fire until Jan 20 morning.

The authorities in the area are investigating the fire’s cause, and at least one person linked to the school has been detained, Xinhua reported on Jan 20.

No official explanation of the precise cause of the deadly blaze has yet been provided, although some domestic media reports suggested it was related to an electric heating device.

Yanshanpu village lies on the outskirts of Nanyang, a city of nearly 10 million people about 850km west of Shanghai.

Little information about the boarding school is publicly available, though social media videos published earlier showed young children including kindergarteners wearing smocks with the school’s logo, as well as older children learning calligraphy.

Fires and other deadly accidents are common in China due to lax safety standards and poor enforcement.

In November 2023, 26 people died and dozens were sent to hospital after a fire at a coal company office in northern China’s Shanxi province.

In June 2023, an explosion at a barbecue restaurant in northwestern China left 31 dead and prompted official pledges of a nationwide campaign to promote workplace safety.

In April 2023, a hospital fire in Beijing killed 29 people and forced desperate victims to jump out of windows to escape. AFP