CHINA / Regional |
Three detained after blaze kills 11 in NE China(Xinhua)Updated: 2007-05-28 13:32 CHAOYANG -- Three people have been detained following a terrible fire in a restaurant that killed 11 and injured 16 on Saturday in northeast China's Liaoning Province, local police said. The fire broke out in the third-storey Baixinglou Restaurant at 7:50 p.m. on Saturday and rapidly engulfed the establishment, one of the most popular eateries in Chaoyang City in western Liaoning. The victims included eight diners and three waitresses, said Zhang Minghua, deputy director of the Chaoyang Municipal Public Security Bureau. Police have arrested 27-year-old cook Wang Yonghai, restaurant manager Zhang Chaohui and chef Wang Zhidong, said Zhang. According to police, Wang Yonghai was preparing cold dishes for a dinner party scheduled for the next day and used an oven that was off-limits to cold dish cooks. Unfamiliar with the oven, Wang used too much cooking oil, which spilled and started the fire. But police did not say how the fire had been able to spread so quickly nor what steps the restaurant staff had taken to try to combat it. Local police are questioning three other people, including restaurant board chairman Li Yang and two other cooks, Zhang said. The managers of the restaurant are discussing how to compensate the victims with their relatives and local authorities. All the 16 injured were out of danger by Monday, though 14 of them are still in hospital, said Wu Xianqi, a local health official. One waitress suffered burns, and the others were injured when they jumped off the building to escape, Wu said. "I was having dinner with 11 friends. We had been at the table for only 20 minutes when two waitresses dashed in yelling that there was a fire," said Zhang Zhanqing, 40. "In a couple of minutes, flames started to lick under the door to our room. We smashed bottles of beer hoping the liquid would help put out the fire." Seeing that this did not work, Zhang and his friends eventually jumped out the restaurant window, he said. "Luckily for us, the restaurant has only three stories and there is a balcony between the first and second floors which served as a kind of buffer." Still, Zhang suffered joint dislocations and a fractured pelvis. "I am so lucky to have survived," he said. It is not known what kind of fire extinguishing equipment the restaurant carried nor whether employees had undergone any kind of safety training. |
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