Changsha municipal authorities held a press conference on Tuesday afternoon to provide an update on the latest rescue progress of the Liuyang fireworks plant explosion. The press conference started with a collective moment of silence to pay tribute to those affected by the accident, Xinhua live coverage of the press event showed.
Rescue teams conduct on-site operations in Liuyang, a county-level under Changsha, Central China's Hunan Province on the morning of May 5, 2025. Photo: Yang Xun/ People's Daily
"The Changsha Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government express our deepest condolences to all the victims, and offer our sincere apologies to the families of the victims, the injured, other affected people, and to the entire society!" said Chen Bozhang, Deputy Secretary of the Changsha Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of Changsha, at the press conference.
More than 1,500 personnel from fire rescue, emergency management, public security, health commissions, and other departments have been mobilized. At present, on-site search and rescue operations have been basically completed. The responsible persons of the involved enterprise have been put under legal measures. The accident had resulted in 26 deaths and 61 injuries, according to the press conference.
Global Times learned from the Hunan provincial authorities that as of press time, search and rescue work at the scene has been basically completed, and the seven people trapped have been rescued. Among the 61 injured people hospitalized, 55 with minor injuries have undergone debridement, anti-inflammatory treatment, and symptomatic care, with stable vital signs. The six severely injured patients are being managed under a personalized "one patient, one strategy, one team" protocol, receiving specialized treatment such as anti-shock therapy, wound repair, and organ function support.
According to Xinhua on Tuesday morning, the Ministry of Emergency Management has dispatched a team to Liuyang to guide the rescue and relief work. Local rescue forces have rushed to the scene to treat the injured and carry out on-site response efforts, per the Xinhua report.
After the explosion, Hunan Province immediately activated its emergency response plan, urgently dispatching five rescue teams totaling 482 personnel to the site for emergency operations and full-scale search and rescue efforts, per Xinhua.
At the rescue site, 20 rescue positions have been established. Rescue teams, equipped with three rescue robots, are carrying out a grid-style, comprehensive search and rescue operation in a human-machine collaborative approach, Xinhua reported on Tuesday morning.
Led by on-site rescue and firefighting personnel, a People's Daily reporter arrived at a location approximately 1 kilometer from the explosion's core area, where one can still smell the fireworks, and see the ruined building debris and shattered glass.
Two black powder warehouses at the plant site pose significant high-risk hazards. The on-site rescue command has designated a 1-kilometer core rescue zone and a 3-kilometer control zone, and evacuated residents from the dangerous areas to safety, according to Xinhua.
To prevent secondary accidents, rescue teams have set up isolation belts and firebreaks around the factory, while implementing measures such as water spraying and humidification to eliminate potential risks.
Also, the Liuyang government has ordered all fireworks manufacturing enterprises across the city to completely halt production for thorough rectification. At the same time, large-scale safety inspections and rectifications are underway in all fields to close regulatory gaps, enforce enterprises' main responsibilities, and comprehensively enhance intrinsic safety standards, officials revealed at the press conference.