Fireworks banned from work sites
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Fireworks are banned at all construction sites during the New Year holidays, almost one year after a deadly blaze damaged the 5 billion yuan CCTV tower.
The Beijing municipal commission for housing and urban-rural development said storing and igniting fireworks is banned at construction sites until March.
This timeframe includes both the Western and Chinese new year celebrations, in which residents are permitted to set off fireworks between Feb 13 and Feb 28.
The commission, along with the municipal commission for urban planning, warned that flammable building materials should not be stored at sites or used in the construction of exterior walls.
The fire at the CCTV building, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and German architect Ole Scheeren, was caused by a combination of the illegal ignition of fireworks and flammable building materials, the fire department has said.
"The focus of the campaign is key construction projects and the prevention of large scale fire incidents," the notice from the housing commission which was published on its website read.
Luo Yuan, deputy chief of the Beijing fire control bureau, said: "Skyscrapers are a difficult part of the campaign. It is very hard to tackle a blaze in such buildings once a fire breaks out," he told METRO.
The CCTV fire broke out on the last day of the New Year festival when officials hired a fireworks squad to explode hundreds of illegal firecrackers above the construction site for entertainment.
The roof of the annex tower caught fire and spread to the entire building, dubbed the Dakucha, or the "Big Boxers", by local residents because of its shape.
The fire consumed a 30-storey luxury hotel storing billions yuan worth of broadcast equipment and studios. One local firefighter, 29-year-old Zhang Jianyong, died from suffocation during the fire rescue and seven others were injured.
Luo also said fires in high-rise buildings were rare in Beijing in recent years.
The blackened annex CCTV tower has remained an unpleasant scene in the central business district in east Beijing.
Authorities have recently decided to rebuild the building but have refused to say how long it will take.
The police arrested Xu Wei, the former director of the CCTV new headquarters, along with 11 officials in February and charged them with misconduct and corruption.
Fifteen workers on the CCTV tower were also arrested earlier this month.
