Three-storey temple on Chinese mountain burns to the ground thanks to one ‘irresponsible’ tourist’s careless mistake

A temple sitting on top of a mountain in China has been completely destroyed after someone visiting didn’t handle incense and candles the right way, starting a huge fire that brought down the whole building.

According to The Daily Mail, Wenchang Pavilion on Fenghuang Mountain in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province, caught a massive fire. Videos from the scene showed the three-floor building covered in orange flames while huge clouds of black smoke went up into the air. Big pieces of the wooden roof fell down as the temple collapsed.

No one was hurt in the fire, and officials said it didn’t spread to the forests around the area. After looking into what happened, investigators found that the fire started because one irresponsible tourist made a careless mistake when using incense and candles. The way this visitor used these items caused the fire that ended up burning down the whole pavilion.

At least no one got hurt and it wasn’t ancient

Officials made it clear that nothing really old or valuable was inside the pavilion when it burned. All the buildings in the temple area were new and there weren’t any old structures that had survived from ancient times. Records show the pavilion was ordered to be built in 2008, made with a reinforced concrete frame, and finished in October 2009.

After it was built, the pavilion was looked after by Yongqing Temple, which sits nearby. Even though the buildings at Yongqing Temple now were put up again in the 1990s, records from the past show that the original temple was built hundreds of years ago, much like how folklore and historical legends continue to capture public interest.

Local officials said they would take more steps after finishing their investigation. They also said they would make safety rules stronger to keep fires from happening at places like this in the future.

Workers are expected to start fixing the damage once they finish checking everything. Officials said they plan to build the pavilion again in a way that keeps the traditional look of the place. People visiting the area should hear more about the plans in the next few weeks.

Something similar happened back in 2023 when another temple in China burned down. The Shandan Great Buddha Temple in Gansu province’s Shandan County, which was hundreds of years old, had flames tear through it. Emergency workers rushed over as a huge Buddha statue got covered in fire.

When the fire was finally put out, the statue was still standing but damaged, and several temple buildings were gone. News reports from the area said the statue was made in 1998 to replace an older one from around 425 AD that got damaged during the Cultural Revolution, a historic period that destroyed many cultural artifacts.