Fireworks factory blast kills 29

A blast ripped through a fireworks factory in northern China, killing 29 people and injuring at least 141, state media reported today.

The explosion happened yesterday at the Guoxi fireworks factory in the town of Wangkou in Hebei province, China Central Television said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many workers were in the factory at the time.

“I thought it was an earthquake. I was really scared. My sister and I just ran out of the house,” Qian Yun, 19, who lives about three miles away from the factory, said.

Another villager, Zhang Fangjie, was working on his farm at the time.

“I heard three or four explosions in a row and saw black smoke rising in the distance,” 40-year-old Zhang said.

The blast completely destroyed the main workroom at the factory and buildings up to 300 feet away were damaged, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The cause of the explosion was under investigation, Xinhua said.

Fatal explosions are reported frequently in China’s fireworks factories despite a safety crackdown launched in early 2002 following a series of high-profile accidents.

The industry employs hundreds of thousands of people, many working at home or in small factories where most manufacturing is done by hand.