Fourteen people have been killed after a fire swept through a crowded high-rise building in Taiyuan, the capital of China’s northern Shanxi province, in one of the deadliest blazes the city has seen in recent years.
According to The News, the fire broke out on Sunday at around 5:00 PM local time in a busy downtown area of the city’s Yingze district, in the Liuxiang subdistrict. The building is a 40-storey commercial and residential tower, and the blaze spread with alarming speed through its lower and upper floors.
State broadcaster reports cited by The News said the fire began around the fourth floor of a lower annex before climbing to the higher levels of the building, where a hotel is located. Images and video circulating online showed thick smoke billowing over the tower as firefighters, positioned on cranes outside the building, battled flames that kept moving upward from the annex.
The human cost of the fire became clear through the night. The initial death toll stood at five, but it rose to 14 by Monday morning, The News reported. Thirty-eight people were rushed to hospitals, and 25 remain admitted, including nine with serious injuries. Emergency teams worked through the evening to bring the situation under control.
Firefighters managed to extinguish the open flames by 7:00 PM, and search-and-rescue operations were concluded by 8:30 PM, according to the reports. Rescue workers had combed through the building floor by floor to make sure no one was left trapped inside as the fire was brought under control.
Local authorities have launched an official investigation to determine the exact cause of the fire. Officials have not yet said what started the blaze, and the inquiry is expected to examine how the fire spread so quickly from the lower annex to the upper floors of the tower.
The fire has once again raised questions about safety in China’s crowded high-rise buildings, where commercial spaces, hotels and homes often sit side by side in a single tower. For the families of the victims, however, the focus remains on the losses of Sunday evening and on the injured still being treated in hospital.
