Zheng Chuanying shows the burnt bank notes on July 2. Photo: CFP

June 25 was a day of disaster for Zheng Chuanying, a villager in Ningling, Henan Province. A series of incidents claimed the life of his wife, injured his two children and sent his life savings up in smoke. In early June, Zheng and his wife Zhang Ximei, having worked in Guangdong Province for a long time, returned to Henan to build a new house.

On the evening of June 25, their 4-year-old daughter knocked over a bucket of gasoline. It was not cleaned up, letting the fumes from the gasoline amass and poison the mother and daughter who were sent to hospital. When the eldest son was sent home to retrieve money to treat them, he lit a lighter to find the money in a dark room, which ignited the gasoline and sparked a fire. The son was badly burned and rushed to the ICU. The children are still in hospital but the mother died the following day.