New Factory Disaster Claims 119 Lives in China

Explosions and fire at a Chinese poultry factory

A water canon hoses down the roof of a poultry processing plant after a major fire which appeared to have been sparked by three early-morning explosions in northeast China's Jilin province's Mishazi township on Monday, June 3, 2013. The massive fire broke out at the poultry plant early Monday, trapping workers inside a cluttered slaughterhouse and killing over a hundred people, reports and officials said

Medical staff wait near a poultry processing plant that was engulfed by a fire in northeast China's Jilin province's Mishazi township on Monday, June 3, 2013. The massive fire broke out at the poultry plant early Monday, trapping workers inside a cluttered slaughterhouse and killing over a hundred people, reports and officials said.

Firefighters and medical staff prepare to remove body bags that appears to contain the bodies of those killed by a fire at a poultry processing plant in northeast China's Jilin province's Mishazi township on Monday, June 3, 2013. The massive fire broke out at the poultry plant early Monday, trapping workers inside a cluttered slaughterhouse and killing over a hundred people, reports and officials said.

Residents look on as rescue efforts continue near a poultry processing plant that was engulfed by a fire in northeast China's Jilin province's Mishazi township on Monday, June 3, 2013. The massive fire broke out at the poultry plant early Monday, trapping workers inside a cluttered slaughterhouse and killing over a hundred people, reports and officials said. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

A set of explosions and fire at a Chinese poultry factory killed at least 119 workers on Monday, amid reports that poor building conditions contributed to the high death toll. Local officials say the blaze was caused by a leak of pressurized ammonia, but it isn't clear if the three large explosion started the fire or were the result of it. More than 50 other people were injured.

According to the Xinhua news service, panicked workers became trapped by the building's "complicated" layout (especially after the power went out) and then found blocked emergency exits and a locked front gate that may prevented many of them from escaping.

The fire is one of the worst industrial disasters to hit China in recent years, but eerily reminiscent of recent disasters in other South Asian countries were lax safety standards and poor building construction have lead to the deaths of thousands of workers, many of them poor and underpaid. The worst, of course, was the collapse of a Bangladesh factory that killed more than 1,000 people last month, but fires elsewhere in the country have killed hundreds more in the last year.