Xinjiang 61st Regiment Farm fire
The farm was a veteran families settlement established to stop China-to-Soviet migration resembling the Yi–Ta incident.
Mao's ban of new year holidays continued, however, keeping the residents in town and many attended the fatal movie-showing.
[2][3] Regiment farms (团场) are military settlements resided by veteran families, who formed the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
Frontier regiment farms (边疆农场) were created along the border after the Yi–Ta incident in 1962, which saw the escape of 60,000 Chinese to the Soviet Union culminated in a bloody put down by China.
The wreaths pile stood 2 meters high and occupied 120 m² (1,300 sq ft), roughly one fifth of the floor.
[2] During the 5 months from his funeral to the 1977 Chinese New Year, under Xinjiang's weather, the tree branches and paper in the wreaths dried out.
[14] In 1975, to welcome communist party superiors coming for a policy information talk, the hall were modified to maintain privacy and order.
[2][3] The regimental propaganda officer had reservations of moving indoor, fearing the children might damage the mourning wreaths for Mao Zedong displayed in the hall, but he was eventually persuaded.
[2] The wreath pile, standing 2-meters high, were pushed to the rear of the hall, occupying 120 m² (1,300 sq ft) space.
[2] At 23:15, minutes before the movie ended, at the iconic closing scene when a Chinese and a North Korean soldier hugged,[2] several children climbed and seated on the slope of the pile of Mao Zedong's mourning wreaths.
A 12-year-old boy (grade 6), Zhao Guanghui, lit a "burrowing rat" (地老鼠), a spinning top-like firecracker.
A crowd crush happened, with a pile around 2–3 metres (6.6–9.8 ft) high, while those unable to reach it were killed by burning asphalt or falling roof tiles.
The regiment farm's upper management was enjoying the long-awaited festive Chinese New Year, to which he thought his son who came to alert the accident was messing around and yelled "get the hell out".
[2] The 8th Border Regiment, based in Huiyuan, 80 km (50 mi) from the fire site, received a phone call from the Yili Military District to go rescue.
[3] The crowd cleared out a path, but the soldiers couldn't enter, as bodies were stacked nearly a meter high at the exit of the hall.
As the crowd were watching, the soldiers felt it was more respectful to use bare hands digging the bodies rather than to use metal tools.
[3] Internal Chinese propaganda initially claimed the fire was started by "class enemies" and those aligned with Soviet Revisionism.
The regiment farm staff in charge of the movie showing were detained for 2.5 years until the local court chose not to prosecute.
[2] The disposal of the mourning wreaths of Mao Zedong and the exits renovation as contributing factors to the fire were not discussed on some media reports even many years later.
