According to Bloomberg, China's Xinhua News Agency has confirmed that a blast rang out at 31.12. 2014 9:30 AM local time from the Fuwa Engineering Manufacturing Company's factory in the city of Foshan. At this point, there haven't been any reports as to the cause of the explosion, although victims were being treated at local hospitals. Apparently the factory was closed for cleaning at the time of the blast.
Fuwa manufactures truck and bus axles, and according to its website, the company has exported parts to the US, Australia, Great Britain, France, Italy and South Africa. Xinhua reports that combustible containers were found throughout the facility, although fire extinguishers were in short supply and workers reported that they'd received little in the way of fire suppression training.
This latest explosion is the second deadly incident at a Chinese auto supplier this year, following an accident at General Motors' supplier Kunshan Zhongrong Metal Products Company's facility outside of Shanghai. At least 75 people were killed and 185 injured when a blast tore through the overcrowded and poorly ventilated factory outside of Shanghai, prompting promises from Chinese politicians that factory safety standards would be overhauled. Outside of the auto industry, 57,000 Chinese have been killed in 269,000 incidents in 2014.
