A 25-YEAR-OLD firefighter with the Xinqiao Firefighting Unit in Bao’an District was killed while fighting a factory fire in Shajing Subdistrict recently.

The fire broke out on the fifth floor of the factory in Xinxintian Industrial Park on Friday night. It was caused by a mechanical failure in ventilation machines.

Twenty-five fire trucks and 120 firefighters were dispatched to put out the fire. The firefighters, in teams that rotated by 15 minutes, took turns entering the fire as the oxygen tanks they carried easily ran out of oxygen supply.

Pan and two other team members wearing oxygen tanks and oxygen masks entered the scene at 3:37 a.m. But as they started to evacuate, firefighter Xu Yigao was unable to make contact with Pan. They started searching for him up to the fifth floor. They eventually found Pan lying on the floor motionlessly with his gear intact. Pan was rushed to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead at 10 a.m. Saturday.

The fire was put out at 8 a.m. Saturday.

Born in 1992 in Zhanjiang, Guangdong, Pan became a firefighter in June last year with the Xinqiao unit and had participated in several major firefighting missions. Pan, a shining young man by all accounts, is also the champion in the unit’s 3,000-meter run and widely recognized for his firefighting expertise.

Two people — a factory owner and a machine operator — have been detained for 10 days as penalty for the negligence that led to a factory fire in Shajing.

According to an investigation, the Sept. 10 fire was caused by mechanical failure. The module machines remained plugged after working hours. (Han Ximin)