Dai Xiaoling

Recently, at the entrance of the first road in Chaoyang District, Beijing, a 2-year-old woman Zhang did not do safety protection and burned paper in the wind to pray for blessings. The residual fire of paper money caused a fire accident, resulting in 0 motor vehicles being burned and 0 vehicles being burned. At present, the suspect Zhang has been criminally detained by the public security organs.

"During the burning of the 'gold ingot', I have been silently thinking about peace and health in my heart, and the whole process lasted about 10 minutes." Zhang said, "After burning the paper, I simply pulled it with a wooden stick and left, without burying it with soil or dousing it with water, and I did not confirm whether the ash was burned through." After Zhang left, the unburned spark ignited the weeds next to him and spread rapidly, and the flames passed through the gap under the iron fence, and finally ignited the vehicles parked next to him.

With the approach of the Qingming Festival, the number of mass sacrifice and sweeping activities has increased, and the spring air is dry and dry, and it is very easy to cause fire accidents if you are not careful. The reporter of "Rule of Law Daily" recently visited Beijing, Tianjin and other places and found that the phenomenon of burning paper on the streets at night and burning incense in the green belt of residential areas has been repeatedly prohibited, and the fire department, urban management and other departments have launched special rectification actions.

4月1日傍晚，記者在北京市朝陽區某十字路口看到，有人在該路口焚燒紙錢，嘴裏還念念有詞。因紙堆面積較大且未設置防火隔離措施，導致煙霧瀰漫，空氣嗆鼻，路過的行人紛紛捂著鼻子繞道走。記者注意到，該路口一側是城市綠化帶，附近停放著許多非機動車輛。儘管燒紙的人不斷聚攏火堆，但由於燒紙量較大，一有風刮過，就會有點燃的紙張飄飛到路面上，甚至有紙片落地后仍在燃燒。

"Recently, there were a lot of paper-burning people at the intersection downstairs at night. Every time they leave, there will be a lot of ash on the road, piles of black piles, which affect the appearance of the city, and we can only cover our noses and hurriedly avoid them when we go out for a walk. If someone accidentally steps on it, it must be uncomfortable in the heart. Mr. Zhang, a resident of Beijing, said.

In addition to the intersections, the corridors of the community, the entrance of the building, and the garbage cans on the street have also become the "hardest hit areas" for burning paper money.

Mr. Liu, a resident of an old community in Tianjin, reflected: "Before and after the Qingming Festival, the corridor was filled with smoke, and the black ash left by burning paper stuck to the wall, which was very difficult to clean up. ”

"The downstairs neighbor is burning paper in the corridor, and the smoke upstairs is so big that you can smell a lot of smoke at home." Ms. Zhao, a resident of Shanghai, complained that she had no choice but to call the fire department after communicating with the residents downstairs due to too much smoke and no success.

"When the neighbors saw the firefighters coming, they put things into the room. Firefighters said that they have no choice but to come to their homes to persuade them to receive several similar alarms in the past day. Ms. Zhao said.

A fire incident recently occurred in a community in Yangpu, Shanghai, caused by improper sacrifices. Community public surveillance video shows that after Zhang burned paper at the entrance of the building, he casually poured the ash of paper money that was not completely extinguished into the garbage can on the side of the road, causing the garbage can to catch fire and the front of a nearby car was burned.

In the mountains of some villages, uncivilized paper-burning is more common.

Mr. Duan from Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, recently almost caused a fire because of the sacrificial sweeping and burning of paper - when he returned to his hometown to sweep the grave of his late father, he burned a lot of paper money, and suddenly a gust of wind blew, blowing the scraps of paper with sparks onto the dry grass pile not far away, and the sparks splashed in an instant, and the fire spread rapidly. Because he had no fire extinguishing tools, he had to fight the flames with his clothes, but with little success. Fortunately, the residents who were also in the vicinity heard the call for help and helped to extinguish the fire and brought the fire under control.

Mr. Li, a resident of Cangzhou, Hebei Province, found that most of the older graves were overgrown with weeds because there was no cement poured or no one to take care of them for a long time, except for a few newly renovated cemeteries in recent years. Families who were in a hurry started burning yellow paper after a simple cleaning and left the scene before the flames were completely extinguished.

"It's been very windy lately, and if the wind blows Mars to other places, how dangerous it is!" Mr. Li said.

A villager in a certain village in Tianjin has been doing fire prevention work at the entrance of the village for several days. He told reporters that because the village is located in a mountainous and forest area, in principle, it is not allowed to burn paper for sacrifices, but many villagers do not listen to dissuasion at all, and some villagers go back after being dissuaded, but when the staff does not pay attention, they go to the cemetery to burn paper.

Meng Qiang, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Institute of Technology, told reporters that many places in China have issued relevant regulations to prohibit the burning of various sacrificial offerings in public places. However, due to the fact that many people still retain the custom of burning sacrifices for their deceased relatives on specific festivals or death days, and the places available for burning are limited, there is a private burning of paper money in the community, roadside, corridor and even in the mountains and forests, which has fire safety hazards and environmental pollution hazards.

The reporter combed through public information and found that in response to such phenomena, public security, fire and other departments in many places jointly carried out a special action of "civilized sacrifice": strengthen night patrols at intersections, residential areas, cemeteries and other areas, and use drones to monitor covert burning behaviors; In some cities, high-definition camera capture is enabled, and violators are warned by SMS and punished on the spot; In the community, we will carry out lectures on the Fire Protection Law and the regulations on the management of city appearance and environmental sanitation.

Some places have introduced alternative measures: Shanghai and Guangzhou have piloted the "flowers for paper money" campaign; Nanjing Yuhuatai Merit Garden promises to the public that if the flowers placed in the cemetery are lost during the sacrifice, the cemetery will be responsible for compensating the equivalent flowers.

The interviewed experts pointed out that although the relevant departments have strengthened governance, the root cause of uncivilized paper burning still requires legal deterrence, environmental protection advocacy and cultural publicity, and "civilized sacrifices" instead of "traditional burning".

"China has a long cultural tradition of sacrifices, and people express their remembrance of the deceased through sacrifices. However, traditional sacrificial behaviors are accompanied by rituals such as burning sacrificial offerings and setting off firecrackers, which will inevitably produce hidden dangers or hazards such as polluting the environment, creating noise, and causing fires. Meng Qiang said that in today's rapid urbanization, it is necessary to balance public interests such as "freedom of sacrifice" and "environmental protection" and "public safety". However, the adoption of a "one-size-fits-all" ban on the burning of worship in some areas does not take into account traditional customs, and may cause dissatisfaction among some people, causing them to turn to more hidden or dangerous places such as residential areas, roadsides, and even residential buildings, which increases the difficulty of management and potential safety hazards, and causes more problems.

"It's better to be blocked." Meng Qiang suggested that flexible policies should be developed according to local conditions and the actual situation in different regions, for example, rural areas can allow moderate burning in open and safe areas, while urban areas should be subject to more restrictions. In the city, some special sacrificial areas should also be demarcated, equipped with necessary fire-fighting facilities and personnel, and people should be allowed to burn and worship within a specific time, so as to meet the needs of people for sacrifice and ensure public safety. At the same time, we should continue to strengthen publicity and education, raise the public's awareness of civilized sacrifices, promote green sacrifices, and encourage the use of low-carbon and environmentally friendly methods such as flower sacrifices, online sacrifices, and electronic incense candles, so as to gradually replace traditional burning customs. (Rule of Law Daily reporter Han Dandong)