A burning candle left in the attic of a wooden apartment house
was determined to be the cause of Wednesday's fire in Xiamen, Fujian
Province, which claimed four lives and left two people injured,
police said.
The fire broke out at about 3:00 AM inside the building on
Zhongshan Road, home to seven households with 20 people. A
67-year-old resident named Wang Jiali forgot to blow out the candle
after he came back from the toilet at about 2:00 AM. There was no
electric light in his attic room.
About an hour later, Wang discovered his table on fire. After
failing to extinguish it with a quilt, Wang alerted the neighbors,
but they could not keep the fire from spreading.
Firefighters put the blaze out about an hour later. The four
victims -- three elderly people and one child -- died of smoke
inhalation, police said.
In north China's Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region, the confirmed death toll from last
Thursday's fluorite mine flood has risen to six, rescuers said
Wednesday.
Two other miners are still missing with very little chance for
survival, said Wang Shihua, deputy director of the rescue
headquarters.
The accident took place at the Jinfeng Fluorite Mine in Chifeng
at about 10:00 AM on March 31, when water flooded into the
750-meter-long shaft. Nine miners were working 120 meters
underground, but only one escaped.
The victims' families began identifying the remains on Wednesday
morning and compensation procedures have begun, said Wang.
The owners of the mine, brothers Xu Guizhuo and Xu Xiangguang,
have been detained for investigation, according to the local
government.
Rescuers are still pumping water and removing silt and rocks
from the tunnel.?
(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2005)