All the families of the 21 people killed in an apartment block
fire last Wednesday in east China's Wenzhou city have each been
given 300,000 yuan (40,760 U.S. dollars) in compensation by the
local government.
The families of the 21 victims, of whom five were migrant
workers, have signed compensation agreements with the Lucheng
District of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, said a spokesman of the
Lucheng District government on Thursday.
The fire broke out at about 8:20 a.m. in a flower shop on the
first floor of the 28-storey Wenfu Mansion building. It killed two
people in the shop and 19 others on the second floor who were
attending their morning exercise class in a ballroom.
Police have detained three people in connection with the fire.
In custody are Wu Songdi, board chairman of the Duoduoxian
Horticulture Co. Ltd., Shao Yongsen, owner of the Yuanyuan Ballroom
and Zhu Xiuling, legal representative of the Duoduoxian flower
shop, who fled after the fire.
Though the cause for the blaze is yet to be determined, local
authorities have frozen the flower shop owner's bank account and
taken two million yuan from the ballroom owner to ensure the
compensation could be paid out earlier, said the spokesman.
An initial investigation found that sparks from an electrical
wire in the flower shop set wrapping paper and plastic flowers
alight and started the fatal fire.
Rescuers safely evacuated 213 others who were initially trapped
in the building where the bottom three floors were for commercial
use and the rest for apartments.
(Xinhua News Agency December 21, 2007)