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Bar owners detained where Christmas fire killed 26
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-27 11:19
Police have detained four brothers who owned an illegally run bar where a
Christmas Day fire killed 26 people in a Chinese city near Hong Kong, news
reports said Tuesday.
The bar in the southern city of Zhongshan lacked fire extinguishers and its
emergency exit was too narrow, the official Xinhua News Agency and newspapers
reported.
Its owners - brothers Lin Hanwen, Lin Hanlong, Lin Hanzhong and Lin
Hanwu - have been detained, the news reports said. They said Lin Hanwu was
being treated for injuries received in the fire.
More than 100 people were in the bar in the Tandao Western Restaurant when
the fire broke out at 11 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Sunday night, the reports said.
The government says the cause of the fire is under investigation.
Zhongshan, which abuts Macao west of Hong Kong, is part of the booming Pearl
River Delta region around Hong Kong whose factories form the heart of China's
export-driven manufacturing industries.
Witnesses quoted by Hong Kong Cable TV said there was an explosion before the
fire. Many of the injured suffered severe burns and were sent to a local
hospital, the station said.
Chinese state television showed firefighters wading through the charred ruins
of the bar. Stools were burned and overturned and much of the ceiling had
collapsed.
It was the second time in five years that China has suffered a deadly
Christmas Day fire.
In 2000, a fire blamed on a welding accident tore through a disco in the
central city of Luoyang, killing 309 people who were celebrating the holiday.
A court sentenced 23 people held responsible for the disaster to up to 13
years in prison. Angry residents staged a march in Luoyang and some protested in
Beijing, demanding the prosecution of local safety officials.
A string of such fires in shopping malls, cinemas and other public places
have happened despite repeated official promises to improve safety. Many are
blamed on disregard for safety rules or lack of required fire escapes.
Earlier this month, a fire blamed on an electrical problem at a hospital in
the northeastern city of Liaoyuan killed 39 people and forced patients to jump
from fourth-floor windows.
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