Fourteen killed in a high-rise fire in Taiyuan, northern China, state media say
A fire in a high-rise building in downtown Taiyuan, the capital of China's northern Shanxi province, killed 14 people on Sunday afternoon, the state-run Xinhua news agency said on Monday. Thirty-eight people were taken to hospital; state media said 25 were still in hospital, nine of them seriously injured. The blaze appears to have started around the fourth floor of an annex and spread to the eighth and ninth floors, which house a hotel. The cause is under investigation.
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Key points
- Fourteen people were killed in Sunday's fire in a downtown Taiyuan high-rise, Xinhua said.
- Thirty-eight people were taken to hospital; 25 were still in hospital, nine seriously injured.
- The fire spread from an annex's fourth floor to the eighth and ninth floors, which house a hotel, the state broadcaster said.
- The cause is under investigation; the fire was out in about two hours and rescue work ended Sunday night.
What happened
The building stands on a busy main road in downtown Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi, a northern manufacturing and coal province. Mixed-use towers of this kind — flats above hotels, shops and tutoring centres — are common in Chinese cities, and fires in them have repeatedly raised questions about escape routes and the separation between uses.
Sunday's fire is the deadliest single incident in China reported this week: the toll climbed overnight, from five confirmed dead on Sunday night to 14 by Monday morning, as some of the injured died.
Claim by claim
Why this label: The toll is Xinhua's, as reported by Reuters. Xinhua is China's state news agency, and its figures are the authorities' account; no independent count was in the reporting read.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: The hospital figures are the authorities' account in state media, as reported by Reuters.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: The spread and the building's make-up are the state broadcaster's account, as reported by Reuters, which also verified online video of smoke over the building. Where exactly the fire started is the broadcasters' initial account, not an investigation finding.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Show all claims (1 more)
Why this label: No cause, and no statement on how the fire spread inside the building, was given in the reporting read.
On the ladder: the evidence so far sits low — early, single or social sources. We publish the claim as a claim, never as fact.
What we know / what we don't know yet
What we know
- The authorities' figures, via Xinhua: 14 dead, 38 taken to hospital, 25 still in hospital with nine seriously injured.
- That the fire began on Sunday afternoon, spread from an annex to hotel floors, and was put out in about two hours.
What we don't know yet
- The cause of the fire — under investigation, with no finding announced.
- The identities of those killed, and how many of the dead were residents, hotel guests or students.
Why it matters
Fourteen people died in a building that combined homes, a hotel and children's tutoring centres in one tower. Until investigators say where the fire started and how it reached the hotel floors, the question every resident of a similar tower will ask — could this happen here — has no answer.
Background
Show the background timeline (4)
Fire breaks out in the high-rise in downtown Taiyuan, apparently around the fourth floor of its annex.
The fire spreads to the eighth and ninth floors, which house a hotel; it is put out after about two hours.
Rescue operations wrap up; 38 people have been taken to hospital and five deaths are confirmed.
Xinhua puts the toll at 14; 25 people are still in hospital, nine seriously injured.
Update history
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Published in Checking state — the cause of the fire is under investigation, and the identities of those killed have not been released.