At about 9:31 p.m. on December 15, the fire suddenly spread rapidly in the private community market in Zhenxi Street, Jishou City, Hunan Province, engulfing many shops and goods in the market. It is a long-established wholesale market that has been in business for decades and is a local commercial powerhouse, bringing together hundreds of merchants in various categories such as clothing, shoes and hats, daily necessities, food, etc. After the fire broke out, many merchants rushed to the scene to rescue their goods, but because the fire was too big, they could not get close, so they could only watch their property turn to ashes and grief.
According to eyewitnesses, the fire may have been caused by a clothing store inside the market, where someone was ironing clothes with an electric iron, and it may have been that the electric iron malfunctioned, igniting the clothes, and then the fire quickly spread to the surrounding shops. Due to the fact that most of the goods in the market were flammable, and the market's firefighting facilities were not perfect, the fire quickly got out of control, forming huge fireballs and thick smoke, which shrouded most of the market.
Merchants and customers in the market fled the scene as soon as they discovered the fire, and some even called 119 to call the police**. After receiving the alarm, the Jishou City Fire and Rescue Brigade quickly dispatched and mobilized a number of fire trucks and dozens of firefighters to the scene to carry out fire extinguishing and rescue work. At the same time, the Jishou City Emergency Management Bureau, the Public Security Bureau, the Municipal ** and other departments also sent staff to the scene to assist the fire department in on-site command and disposal, maintain on-site order, evacuate the surrounding people, and prevent the spread of fire and the occurrence of secondary disasters.
After the hard work of the fire department, the fire was basically extinguished at around 2 a.m. on the 16th, and there were no people. However, the fire caused serious damage to the market, and several shops and a large number of goods in the market were burned down, causing heavy damage. According to preliminary estimates, the direct economic losses caused by the fire could be as high as tens of millions of yuan.
After the fire, Jishou City attached great importance to it, immediately launched the emergency response mechanism, set up a fire accident investigation team, conducted a comprehensive investigation and analysis of the causes, processes, responsibilities and other causes of the fire, at the same time, also registered and comforted the merchants affected by the fire, provided them with temporary accommodation and living security, and promised to give them reasonable compensation and assistance as soon as possible.
The merchants affected by the fire said that they were grateful for the rescue of the city, but they were also very saddened by their losses, they said that this was their decades of savings and hard work, which was burned overnight, and they did not know what to do in the future, and they hoped that the city could rebuild the market as soon as possible, so that they could start operating again and resume their lives.