10 victims named but rumors of 378 persist
By Xu Chi |
July 7, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
Tianjin City in northern China yesterday published a list of 10 victims who died in a shopping mall inferno in a bid to refute rumors that at least 378 people died in the fire.
The city government's list, posted online yesterday, shows that nine of the 10 victims were shop assistants working on the fourth and fifth floors of the mall. Only one customer is said to have been killed in last Saturday's blaze. The 10 women were aged between 25 and 44.
The list was published after the Sing Pao Daily News, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, reported that an investigation by the Tianjin prosecutors office confirmed that 378 people were killed in the fire.
The newspaper said the death toll at the five-floor mall in Tianjin's Jixian County was so high because security guards had locked the doors after fire alarms sounded to prevent customers leaving without paying their bills.
The official death toll is also being questioned by Jixian residents after witnesses claimed they saw people jumping from the burning building and that local hospitals were full of the injured while dead bodies were "queuing up" at mortuaries.
The fire is said to have begun at the Laide Shopping Mall at about 4pm last Saturday and lasted for at least five hours. It is thought to have been caused by an overloaded air conditioner which caught fire, with the flames spreading rapidly throughout the building, the Southern Metropolis Daily said.
The city government said yesterday that in addition to the 10 victims, 16 people had been injured. No one was missing, officials said.
The Sing Pao Daily News said the mall was busy as it was having a sales promotion. Many parents brought their children as some retailers required customers to show student ID cards to enjoy discounts, it said. A man surnamed Xue who survived the fire told the newspaper that an air conditioner went on fire on the ground floor at about 3:30pm but a manager made a "stupid" decision to order guards to lock the doors at the two entrances.
The manager told the guards that only customers who had paid their bills could leave, and he arranged for other staff to put out the fire, Xue said.
But the fire spread quickly, the report said, and it was only after the ground floor filled with smoke that the manager told a guard to open the doors.
Firefighters were quickly on the scene, other witnesses said, but found the water pressure too low and they spent a lot of time adjusting their equipment. Meanwhile, clothes and cosmetics in the mall fueled the fire.
Witnesses also told the newspaper that some people were trapped on the third floor or higher and had to jump out of windows. Some men and women jumping off the building died at the scene, the report said.
"Some parents on the second floor desperately threw their babies from the building, asking other people to catch them," a witness said. "A female shop assistant jumped from the fifth floor but died at the scene."
On Weibo.com, people claiming to be Jixian residents said hospitals were full with the injured and mortuaries packed with bodies.
Shanghai Daily called the Funeral Parlor of Jixian County but an official refused to comment. There was no response when the reporter phoned the Jixian People's Hospital and the local fire bureau.
Jixian officials told Chinese media they would give other responses to online rumors after investigations were complete.
The city government's list, posted online yesterday, shows that nine of the 10 victims were shop assistants working on the fourth and fifth floors of the mall. Only one customer is said to have been killed in last Saturday's blaze. The 10 women were aged between 25 and 44.
The list was published after the Sing Pao Daily News, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, reported that an investigation by the Tianjin prosecutors office confirmed that 378 people were killed in the fire.
The newspaper said the death toll at the five-floor mall in Tianjin's Jixian County was so high because security guards had locked the doors after fire alarms sounded to prevent customers leaving without paying their bills.
The official death toll is also being questioned by Jixian residents after witnesses claimed they saw people jumping from the burning building and that local hospitals were full of the injured while dead bodies were "queuing up" at mortuaries.
The fire is said to have begun at the Laide Shopping Mall at about 4pm last Saturday and lasted for at least five hours. It is thought to have been caused by an overloaded air conditioner which caught fire, with the flames spreading rapidly throughout the building, the Southern Metropolis Daily said.
The city government said yesterday that in addition to the 10 victims, 16 people had been injured. No one was missing, officials said.
The Sing Pao Daily News said the mall was busy as it was having a sales promotion. Many parents brought their children as some retailers required customers to show student ID cards to enjoy discounts, it said. A man surnamed Xue who survived the fire told the newspaper that an air conditioner went on fire on the ground floor at about 3:30pm but a manager made a "stupid" decision to order guards to lock the doors at the two entrances.
The manager told the guards that only customers who had paid their bills could leave, and he arranged for other staff to put out the fire, Xue said.
But the fire spread quickly, the report said, and it was only after the ground floor filled with smoke that the manager told a guard to open the doors.
Firefighters were quickly on the scene, other witnesses said, but found the water pressure too low and they spent a lot of time adjusting their equipment. Meanwhile, clothes and cosmetics in the mall fueled the fire.
Witnesses also told the newspaper that some people were trapped on the third floor or higher and had to jump out of windows. Some men and women jumping off the building died at the scene, the report said.
"Some parents on the second floor desperately threw their babies from the building, asking other people to catch them," a witness said. "A female shop assistant jumped from the fifth floor but died at the scene."
On Weibo.com, people claiming to be Jixian residents said hospitals were full with the injured and mortuaries packed with bodies.
Shanghai Daily called the Funeral Parlor of Jixian County but an official refused to comment. There was no response when the reporter phoned the Jixian People's Hospital and the local fire bureau.
Jixian officials told Chinese media they would give other responses to online rumors after investigations were complete.
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