33 dead in China hospital inferno (AFP)

[Up2Late]

(What's the deal with China? Did they stop throwing Journalists in jail for reporting stuff like this and the recent mine explosions?)

33 dead in China hospital inferno

15/12/2005 21h11

BEIJING (AFP) - Fire swept through a hospital in northeastern China, killing at least 33 people and forcing desperate people to jump from the building to escape the flames, state media reported. Rescuers found the remains of 19 people at the scene in Liaoyuan city, Jilin province, while 14 others succumbed to their injuries after being taken to area hospitals, a provincial official was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.

The fire started at the City Center Hospital, the largest in Liaoyuan, at about 4:30 pm (0830 GMT), Xinhua said. Scores of firefighters battled for five hours to bring the blaze under control. All of the victims were patients at the facility, Xinhua said, adding that rescue teams were still working their way through the rubble in search of survivors as tearful local residents looked on.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the fire, which swept through four four-story buildings according to witnesses, began in a power distribution room, the agency reported. Authorities were pursuing their inquiry. "I saw people jumping out of the window and many of them got injured. I'm sorry I could not do anything to help," one unnamed witness said.

One lucky patient, 43-year-old Wang Mingwen, told the state-run agency that he escaped from a third-floor ward by tying his bed quilt to a heating pipe and climbing down from the window, but his wife fell and was seriously injured. Hospital sources said a total of 245 in-patients were registered at the hospital before the fire broke out, and 152 has been rescued and transferred to other hospitals.

<http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/051215211112.v62lfrcp.html>
(more at link above)

[Up2Late]

1. kick n/t

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