78 years ago today, on January 22, 1947 (January 1, 1947 lunar calendar), the death case of the Republic of China: the first day of the fire year. The Shanghai Municipal Government invited representatives to participate in the official letter to the Shanghai Municipal Senate to organize the Wuding Road Fire Investigation Committee (this file is now in the Shanghai Municipal Archives) January 22, 1947 is the first day of the first lunar month of the Dinghai New Year. Despite the skyrocketing prices, social chaos and increasingly difficult life in Shanghai at that time, the deafening sound of firecrackers still resounded in the streets and alleys during the New Year. At 9 o'clock that night, Zhu Qinglan, deputy head of the fire brigade of Jing'an Temple District, heard someone calling the police, claiming that there was a fire at the junction of the Seymour intersection of Wuding Road. He immediately led the team to set off and was the first to rush to the scene to organize rescue and quickly put out the fire. However, just half an hour after he led the team to evacuate, the fire in Lane 660 of Seymour Road was once again in the sky, and the fire spread rapidly. More than 100 fire police officers and more than 10 fire engines rushed to the scene of the fire, but the fire still burned all night, and the 12 condominiums in Lane 660 of Seymour Road from No. 1 to No. 29 were burned to the ground. So why didn't the firefighters put out the fire? Why was the row of houses on Wuding Road not seriously damaged, while the Seymour Road villa on the corner of the road was razed to the ground? What happened? The fire incident aroused public indignation. On January 25, 1947, the "Report" reported: "At 9:48 pm on the 22nd of this month, a fire broke out at the Wuding intersection of North Shaanxi Road (that is, Seymour Road). A total of 13 houses were burned, and the loss amounted to more than 2 billion yuan. It burned for 13 hours before and after the city's victory. It was an unprecedented fire after the city's victory." On January 27, the "News" wrote: "The fire on Wuding Road, the words of the alley, save but not save, save without saving, the water dragon has no water, and the car has no oil. "There is a barracks of US military police near the scene of the fire on Wuding Road. They testified to the fact that firefighters did not work hard to fight the fire: 12 firefighters stood by and leaned against the wall. When Wang Yunfu's house in Building 29 was burning, no one took fire-fighting measures, allowing the fire to run wild and arrogant. Firefighters also stopped two US troops who were going to fight the fire and prevented them from passing. There are also victims who came forward to testify. On the evening of January 22, when the fire burned out No. 29 in Lane 660 and burned No. 27 on the side, it was nearly midnight. Firefighters quickly entered the No. 27 house, not to fight the fire, but to rummage through the cabinets and stuff their pockets. The owner of No. 11 said that when his family was busy moving things that night, they were violently blocked by the fire police, and the firefighters cut a large hole in the wardrobe and shoe box of his house with an axe. When the nurse went upstairs to grab things, she was hugged and molested by the fire police. The principal of the primary school, Pan Wenzhen, begged the firefighters to help save their library, but the firefighters turned a blind eye and did not move. The most famous and wealthy of the affected residents was Wang Yunfu, the manager of Sanyou Industrial Company, the owner of Building 29. After the fire was extinguished, he checked the storage and found that the safe had been pried open, and several gold bars and 500 yuan of new customs coupons were missing. His daughter's seven-carat diamond ring also disappeared. According to the testimony of a 7-year-old girl at the time, she saw firefighters asking for gold bars from Wang Yunfu's family, but the Wangs went to the movies, and the remaining servants could not call the shots. Therefore, the firefighters allowed the fire to get bigger and bigger. The Yongqin Rubber Factory, which was not far from the source of the fire, was said to be intact because 30 gold bars went into the firefighters' pockets. The fire caused an uproar in public opinion, and there were many discussions. The firefighters were pointed at the firefighters, and the firefighters were blamed for their incompetence in fighting the fire and taking advantage of the fire. In the face of the fierce confrontation between the people and the firefighters, the Shanghai municipal government established a "fire investigation committee". The fire investigation committee, also known as the "five-member committee," is composed of representatives of the municipal government, the municipal police department, the municipal council, Jiangning district and the affected households. On January 28, six days after the fire, Shanghai Mayor Wu Guozhen personally called the first meeting of the "five-member committee." Mayor Wu Guozhen said that the municipal government and the police department are extremely ashamed of the unfortunate incident. Regarding the rumors that the firefighters have dereliction of duty, he believes that it is in the interests of all citizens. The investigation and handling must be made public, and it must be strictly investigated. If there is any extortion and robbery, it must be strictly handled. On January 30, the "five-member committee" organized a face-to-face confrontation between the victims and the firefighters for more than 10 hours. Investigations revealed that the first fire was at the copper shop and briquettes on Wuding Road. The owner of the copper shop said she saw sparks coming from her house's electrical wiring. When she fled the house in a panic, hugging her child, she found that the briquettes shop next door and the wooden shed at No. 29 Seymour Road had been burning. When the fire broke out, the fire brigade received a call and quickly arrived at the scene of the fire. The houses on Wuding Road are made of wood and are very flammable, but firefighters took only half an hour to put out the fire and then withdrew. The corner of Wuding Road intersects the Seymour Road Mansion District, which has 12 conjoined houses, an elementary school, and a rubber factory. These buildings are made of brick and wood structures with a lead roof on them. Compared with the houses on Wuding Road, it is not easy to ignite. However, less than half an hour after the firefighters evacuated, only a muffled sound was heard from the third floor of Building 29 on Seymour Road, and then red flames soared into the sky. Wang Yunfu, the owner of Building 29, was watching a movie in the city center at this time. Through this confrontation, the "five-member committee" reached a preliminary conclusion: the firefighters's petty theft in this fire was indeed there, not because the firefighters did not fight the fire, but mainly because of the unstoppable fire and the construction of the house. After several investigations, the fire investigation committee issued a "report on the criminal part of the Wuding Road fire case" in early February, and most of the content of the report was related to the Wang family: First, "It is still difficult to guess the source of the second fire on the third floor of No. 29, whether it was an external burning or an internal fire, raising questions." Because although fire experts said that the cause of the second fire was caused by a stuffy roof, there were rumors that the fire committee found traces of gasoline on the periphery of Building 29 during an investigation at the scene. So there is a secret theory, because Wang Yunfu's son accidentally found his wife and father lying in the same bed and set fire angrily. Second, "There is no evidence of extortion of gold bars. Yongqin Rubber Factory was able to save, because it was found in time, and the workers participated in the firefighting at the same time, it is difficult to determine that there was a bribe of gold bars. The Wang family's lost gold bars were only identified by the victims, which is difficult to judge, and many of the Wang family's masters and servants denied it." So why did Wang Yunfu testify before and deny it later? Third, the theft of property is undeniable, but the door was hacked, the hot water bottle was taken away, etc., are only clues, and it cannot be determined what was robbed... On February 13, Mayor Wu Guozhen approved the investigation report submitted by the "Committee of Five". Zhuo Houdao, the district captain of the Yichang Road Fire Brigade, who belonged to the police officer who stole the property, was dismissed for "ineffective management and training." Zhu Qinglan, deputy captain of the Jing'an District Team, and Li Qian, captain of the Hongkou District Team, were dismissed for "poor supervision." Xia Guoliang, the chief of the fire brigade, and Zhou Zhaoxiang, the director of the fire department, each recorded a major demerit for "neglect of supervision." 23 people were suspected of fire police in the Seymour Road fire case on Wuding Road. After being tried by the District Court, they were sentenced on April 24. Shang Zhikui, Dai Guangrong, and Li Chengjun were all sentenced to one year and six months in prison. In this regard, the chief prosecutor of the Shanghai District Court Procuratorate said a meaningful sentence: "This result is expected." So far, the sensational Seymour Road fire case on the first day of the new year on Wuding Road has come to an end. What kind of secrets and truths are hidden in Wang Yunfu's house? Everything is unknown, and there are no clues. It has become a mystery that cannot be solved to this day. Originally published in the third edition of the 2424 issue of China Archives on February 28, 2013