Building fire kills 17 in Beijing
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A fire swept through a garment workshop building in the southern Beijing suburb Monday morning. |
The municipal Work Safety Commission convened an emergency meeting Monday noon to discuss cracking down on illegal buildings and eliminating fire hazards in the future.
All illegal buildings that are currently under construction will be torn down, and unlicensed businesses will be shut down, said Shao Heng, deputy chief of the district's government office. Workplaces with significant safety hazards will have their work suspended and will be ordered to eliminate the hazards, said Shao.
The blaze was the most fatal fire to occur in Beijing in about nine years. On June 16, 2002, a fire consumed an underground Internet cafe called "Lanjisu" and claimed 25 victims, mostly college students.
In 2009, another fire made national headlines after it swept through one of the newly-built headquarter buildings of China Central Television (CCTV), killing one firefighter and injuring eight others.
