The explosion reportedly happened around 1.10pm on 16 September at the Hedong Fireworks Factory in Hekou Township, Nanxian County, Yiyang City, in Hunan Province. Six rooms were destroyed in the blast.
An official from the Hekou Township Government told China Labour Bulletin that rescue workers rushed to the site immediately after the explosion. A local villager said his 58-year-old mother had died in the accident and all the deceased victims were female workers.
The villager added that he did not know if the factory owner had bought any accident and safety insurance for the workers, but he believed that the owner had invested all his money on the fireworks production side, and that the workers would definitely get no compensation if they were not insured.
While government officials had arrived to investigate the accident and oversee the rescue of the injured workers, no representatives of the official trade union, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, were reportedly to be seen at the site of the accident.
An official from the Work Safety Bureau in Yiyang City stated CLB that although the bureau was set up long ago, work safety in the fireworks industry remained the responsibility of the Public Security Bureau and so his department had no role to play.
China Labour Bulletin later called the Public Security Bureau in Yiyang City, where an official initially stated that it was the Work Safety Bureaus responsibility to oversee safety at the affected factory, but then subsequently admitted that it lay within the PSBs jurisdiction.
The PSB official declined to disclose any further information about the factory disaster.
A cadre from the Nanxian County Trade Union Federation informed CLB that the union had played no role in the investigation and rescue work at the site of the accident, because they had not been instructed to do so by the government.