The 61st Regiment Farm fire (Chinese: 61团场火灾) was a fire occurred at the Chinese New Year at 20:15 local time, 18 February 1977 in a hall showing a communist war movie in Xinjiang, China. The regiment farm was a military-agricultural colony run by the Xinjiang 61st regiment, hence, most deaths were the children of the troops. Among the 1,600 schoolchildren in the farm, 597 were dead. In total 694 died and 161 became disabled, making it the deadliest fire in the People's Republic of China. The fire started when a pile of wreaths for the late Mao Zedong, undisposed for 5 months since his funeral, were set off by a child celebrating the 1977 Chinese New Year. Nobody disposed the wreaths for fear of being accused of disrespectful to the paramount leader and then being thrown to denunciation ra