IN BRIEF (Page 4)

Beijing

Fires kill 51 during Spring Festival

Across China 12,025 fires broke out from Feb 15 to midday on Feb 21, leaving 51 people dead and nine injured, the fire department of the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement on Thursday. During the seven-day Spring Festival holiday, the number of fires dropped 12.8 percent from the same period of 2017, with property losses of 57 million yuan ($9 million), said the statement. As part of fire prevention efforts, inspectors identified and neutralized some 264,000 fire hazards in the period.