East China building blaze kills 15
EIJING: At least 15 people were killed and 44 INJURED IN A fiRE AT A RESIDENTIAL BUILDING in eastern China, local authorities said on Saturday.
The fire broke out on Friday morning, officials told a news conference, with a preliminary investigation suggesting that the blaze started on the building’s first floor, where electric bikes had been placed.
The building is in the Yuhuatai district of Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, with a population of more than 8 million people. The city lies about 260 kilometers (162 miles) northwest of the eastern city of Shanghai.
By 6 a.m., the fire had been extinguished, and a search-andrescue operation ended at about 2 p.m. on Friday, authorities said.
Twenty-five fire trucks were mobilized to fight the blaze, emergency services said.
Footage circulating on Chinese social networks showed a skyscraper on fire in the middle of the night, with black smoke rising from it.
Other images show gigantic flames consuming several floors of the building, the flashing lights of emergency vehicles visible nearby in the dark.
Additional footage, apparently taken later, shows white smoke from several points in the building.
The 44 injured people were sent to the hospital for treatment, officials said, adding that one was in “critical condition” while another was seriously injured.
At a news conference, Nanjing Mayor Chen zhichang offered his condolences and apologies to the victims’ families.
Fires and other deadly accidents are common in China due to lax safety standards and poor enforcement.
The East Asian country has seen a spate of deadly fires in recent months, often caused by official negligence, prompting calls from President Xi Jinping last month for “deep reflection” and greater efforts to “curb the frequent occurrence of safety accidents.”
In January, dozens died after a fire broke out at a store in the central city of Xinyu, with state-run Xinhua News Agency reporting that the blaze had been caused by the “illegal” use of fire by workers in the store’s basement.
That fire came just days after a late-evening blaze at a school in central Henan province killed 13 schoolchildren as they slept in a dormitory.
A teacher at the school told state-run Hebei Daily that all the victims were from the same thirdgrade class of 9- and 10-year-olds.
Domestic media reports suggested the fire was caused by an electric heating device.
And last November, 26 people were killed and dozens sent to hospital after a fire at a coal company office in northern Shanxi province.
The month before, an explosion at a barbecue restaurant in the country’s northwest left 31 dead and prompted official pledges of a nationwide campaign to promote workplace safety.
And last April, a hospital fire in the capital Beijing killed 29 people and forced desperate survivors to jump out of windows to escape.