Taiyuan apartment tower fire kills 14; 25 still in hospital, nine in critical condition

A fire in a mixed-use high-rise in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, killed 14 people and sent 38 to hospital on Sunday evening (November 8); as of Monday afternoon (November 9), 25 people remained in hospital, nine of them critically injured, four seriously injured and 12 lightly injured. The cause is still under investigation, and property managers have been placed under control measures. (Image: file photo of a high-rise residential fire, unrelated to this incident.)

Fire out within two hours

According to Xinhua, the fire broke out at about 4:59 p.m. on Sunday at the Haosheng International Apartment on Liuxiang South Road in Yingze District, downtown Taiyuan. The complex includes a 40-storey residential tower and a nine-storey annex housing flats, a hotel and training centres. The fire appears to have started around the fourth floor of the annex before spreading to the eighth and ninth floors, where a hotel is located; video images circulated online and verified by Reuters showed smoke billowing over the 40-storey structure as firefighters on cranes fought flames spreading upward from the lower annex.

The flames were put out within about two hours, and rescue operations ended at about 8:30 p.m., with 60 people evacuated or rescued. Thirty-eight people were taken to hospital; five were confirmed dead on Sunday night, and the toll rose to 14 by Monday morning.

Cause unknown; property managers under control

The Taiyuan municipal government said on Monday that the findings of the investigation would be released in accordance with the law, and that managers of the property owner and the property management company have been placed under control measures. No cause has been given, and the authorities have not said when their findings will be released.

The same building was the scene of a fatal elevator-demolition accident in March, when a worker fell from more than 70 metres; a district government investigation later found that the elevator's owner had illegally subcontracted the work and failed to coordinate safety management of the contractor.