THE Shenzhen Fire Department should be held partly responsible for the fatal Guangdong toy factory fire on Friday because of its failure to enforce safety regulations, the city's vice-mayor, Li Guangzhen, said yesterday. Mr Li met a delegation from the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions and stressed that the department had asked the Zhili Handicrafts Factory not to lock its doors and windows but the request had been ignored for security reasons. Mr Li said that even though the factory ignored the warnings, the Fire Department still should have enforced the regulations or even asked the factory to stop production. He added that the cause of the fire was still being investigated by a special group formed after the disaster, in which 82 workers were killed and more than 40 others injured. He said Shenzhen authorities would inspect all factories in the city. ''If any factory fails to comply with the fire safety standards, they have to either improve their safety standards or stop production,'' he said. He also said that the factory's Hong Kong owner had come to Shenzhen to help with the investigation.
