State Councilor and Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun called for improvement of public fire control capacity to protect people’s lives and property at a fire prevention meeting on April 10.

He stressed the importance to learn the instructions of President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang on safety production and fire prevention.

He urged to carefully evaluate the provincial governments’ performance in fire prevention and promote the implementation of a responsibility system.

Guo demanded that all evaluations must be conducted in an honest and objective manner through following strict procedures and standards. The evaluations should focus on highly crowded places, oil and gas pipelines and high rise buildings, said Guo.

The evaluations should also target vulnerable venues such as social welfare institutions and public culture locations and find out loopholes so as to push the local authorities to eliminate security risks, he said.

Currently, 10 evaluation teams have been sent to all over the country to make the assessment.