A man from northern China has been arrested for spreading rumours that 18 firefighters were killed by toxic fumes while responding to Thursday’s pesticide factory explosion in Yancheng, Jiangsu province. Investigators alleged that the suspect, a 21-year-old surnamed Shi from Shanxi province, “had fabricated and spread false rumours online, causing confusion and disturbing public order”, Yancheng city police said on Sunday. On Friday, the man used Chinese internet company Baidu’s Tieba internet forum to claim that 18 of the city’s firefighters died from inhaling toxic fumes at the plant, police said. Provincial fire chiefs said no crew members were killed or injured while responding to the explosion. According to city authorities, at least 78 people were killed and more than 600 injured by the blast at Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical factory, making it one of the deadliest industrial accidents in recent years. Tests carried out on Friday showed the amount of toxic nitrogen oxide in the air was almost twice the national safety level for industrial areas. The welfare of first responders at chemical fires became a serious concern after 104 firefighters perished in the 2015 Tianjin port explosions, more than half of the 173 people killed in the blasts. Firefighters were sent to contain a fire in a warehouse that stored hazardous chemicals, unprepared for the explosions triggered by the blaze. Explosions and landslides – the worst industrial accidents in China since 2014 The Jiangsu rumour was dismissed by police on Saturday, and by the fire services branch of the Ministry of Emergency Management the next day. “Someone is spreading rumours that 18 firefighters had died. Hateful [behaviour]!” the fire services message read, above an image of the post containing the rumour. Although China tightly controls public forums, online and offline, rumours concerning large-scale incidents proliferate in part due to scant information provided by the authorities and in part because some people exploit events to seek attention. Two days after the Tianjin port explosions, a resident surnamed Kang was detained for five days for spreading a rumour that the death toll had reached 1,300, of whom nearly 500 were civilians, People’s Daily reported. China’s Cyberspace Affairs Commission shut down more than 90 Weibo accounts and 70 WeChat public accounts, and suspended another 200 public social accounts, for rumour-mongering after the Tianjin accident, the report said.