THE government ordered an across-the-board inspection of fire protection measures around the city after seven people died in two fires on Wednesday.

The inspection will be focused on nursing homes, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, beauty salons, recreation businesses, foot massage places and bath houses, as well as rented residential buildings and warehouses that also accommodate people, the government announced yesterday.

The inspectors will look for problems such as using illegal building materials that are susceptible to fire, blocked fire escape passages, insufficient emergency exits, and illegal group renting.

In cases of group renting, the government pledged to drive out all such tenants.

Local governments will be ordered to inspect residential buildings for e-bike battery charging irregularities that could lead to fire.

Four people died in a fire which broke out at a rented apartment in a residential complex in Putuo District on Wednesday night, while three died in a restaurant fire in Hongkou District earlier that day.

Fire also broke out in a restaurant on the sixth floor of the Cloud Nine mall in Hongkou yesterday, though no one was hurt in that incident.