5th Ld-Writethru: China Focus: Building fire kills 17, injures 24 in Beijing

5th Ld-Writethru: China Focus: Building fire kills 17, injures 24in Beijing

BEIJING, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Seventeen people were killed and 24others injured in a southern Beijing suburb Monday morning in thedeadliest fire the Chinese capital has seen in nine years.

Nine men and eight women died in the fire, and most of them weremigrant workers seeking accommodation in the building, said WangXin, deputy chief of the Daxing District Committee of the CommunistParty of China.

Out of the 17 dead, thirteen were workers hired by an unlicensedgarment workshop called Yuyun and the other four were tenants in thefour-story building. And 11 of the dead lived on the ground floor,said Wang.

The 24 injured people, including a child, were rushed tohospitals. Ten of the 20 patients admitted by Beijing YouanmenHospital were in serious condition and were transferred to BeijingJishuitan Hospital, said He Lixin, deputy president of YouanmenHospital.

The fire broke out around 1 a.m. Monday in the building inJiugong town of Beijing's Daxing district. It raged for an hourbefore being extinguished around 2 a.m..

Officials and witnesses said the fire started in the garmentworkshop. Trapped people were seen screaming and smashing theworkshop's barred windows in an attempt to escape.

Photos taken at the site showed that the windows of the buildingwere blocked with iron bars, which were initially installed to wardoff burglars. The bars prevented the trapped people from escaping.

"We saw people jumping from the building. About six or sevenpeople, clad in pajamas, flung themselves from the first floor afterkicking open the bars on one window," said Wang Xuegang, a localresident.

"It was a real nightmare. Some dived from the top floor and neverrose again," said Wang.

Fire engines were blocked by the area's narrow valleys, andfirefighters had to manually carry hoses to the site to douse theblaze, said Wang.

"The first floor was filled with choking fumes. With no way toleave, my wife and I jumped from a platform at the top of thebuilding," said a survivor surnamed Xu who suffered broken legs.

Investigations showed that the building was illegally built by alocal resident surnamed Zhang in 2010. Zhang leased out the groundfloor to the owners of the garment business. The floors above thegarment shop were rented to migrant workers seeking inexpensivehousing.

The ground floor also housed the garment workshop's employees.One of the workshop's managers is also receiving medical treatmentat the hospital.

A further probe into the cause of the fire is under way.

Liu Qi, secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of theCommunist Party of China, and mayor Guo Jinlong were at the site todirect the investigation.

The blaze was the most fatal fire to occur in Beijing in aboutnine years. On June 16, 2002, a fire consumed an undergroundInternet cafe named "Lanjisu" and claimed 25 victims, mostly collegestudents.

In 2009, another fire made national headlines after it sweptthrough one of the newly-built headquarter buildings of ChinaCentral Television (CCTV), killing one firefighter and injuringeight others.