Welding work blamed for 10 deaths in fire
AUTHORITIES have detained 24 people after a fire sparked by unsafe welding and cutting work killed at least 10 people in eastern China.
Three of the nine injured people being treated in hospital are in critical condition, Xinhua news agency said yesterday.
The blaze broke out at the four-story HNA Platinum Mix Hotel on Saturday morning in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province, and the blaze took nearly two hours to extinguish, Xinhua said.
Three of those killed in the blaze were guests and seven were construction workers, Xinhua cited the city government as saying.
Video footage of the scene showed thick black smoke billowing out the windows of the building before rising in a towering plume.
Photographs showed firefighters shooting jets of water at smoking, cracked wall panels, and working in a team to lift a shirtless, unconscious victim from the wreckage.
Xinhua said one person had been injured jumping from a second floor window to escape and had been taken to hospital.
Three of 16 people taken to hospitals died while in care, and firefighters found seven bodies amid the hotel debris.
A preliminary investigation found the blaze was caused by welding and cutting work that violated safety rules, Xinhua reported.
It said hotel shareholders, the contractor for the project and workers had been taken into police custody.
More than 260 residents of a 24-story apartment building connected to the hotel were evacuated after Saturday’s blaze.
Earlier this month, 18 people were killed when a foot massage parlour caught fire in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
Seven people died in a fire in an elderly care facility last month.
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