SINCE THE BEGINNING of July, Xi'an-based newspaper Chinese Business View has published a series of reports about local communities and revealing quite a number of them lack proper fire prevention arrangements. The newspaper comments:

Fire prevention is of the utmost importance. That's why the law requires the fire prevention facilities and arrangements in residential communities to be checked regularly.

However, the situation is rather bad in certain communities in Xi'an. Some have their fire exits blocked, the fire hydrants of some need repairing, and the property management staff of some have not received training about what to do if there is a fire.