China-LODD's

[NJFFSA16]

BEIJING (AP) - The bodies of four more firefighters were found
Tuesday in the wreckage of an eight-story building damaged by fire
in southern China, state television said. Thirteen were missing.
The death toll stood at six but was expected to rise following
the disaster Monday in Hengyang, a city in Hunan province.
A firefighter was rescued alive from the wreckage Tuesday
morning, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The fire is believed to have started on the ground floor, which
was rented out as a storage area and held electrical items and
plastic, the news Web site Sina.com said. It said heavy smoke was
billowing out of the ground floor during the fire.
Part of the building collapsed while firefighters were trying to
quell the flames.
About 160 firefighters were involved in battling the flames,
Sina.com said. Pictures on the site showed firefighters spraying
water on piles of rubble, while others searched the area.
One firefighter was in critical condition and 14 were still
missing, China Central Television reported in its noon newscast. It
said 400 residents were evacuated and the cause of the fire was
still under investigation.
An officer at the Hengyang public security bureau who would give
only his family name, Xiong, said two more bodies were found
Tuesday morning. He gave the death toll as four, with 16 missing.
He refused to give additional details.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

BEIJING (AP) - The bodies of 14 firefighters have been found in
a building in southern China that collapsed while they tried to put
out a fire, a government news agency reported Wednesday. It said
six others were missing.
The disaster Monday in Hengyang, a city in Hunan province,
appeared to be one of the deadliest ever suffered by China's
firefighters.
Paramilitary troops and mine rescue crews were helping to search
the ruins of the eight-story building, which caught fire before
dawn Monday, the China News Service reported.
As of 5 a.m. Wednesday (2100 GMT Tuesday), the rescuers had
found 14 bodies, the report said.
One firefighter was found alive in the wreckage Tuesday morning,
a day after the building collapsed.
The fire is believed to have started on the ground floor, which
was rented out as a storage area and held electrical items and
plastic, news reports said. They said more than 400 residents were
evacuated.
The chief executive of the Hengyang city government, Chen
Xinping, confirmed the death toll but refused to give any other
details.
A spokeswoman for the Civil Affairs Ministry in Beijing said the
ministry had no figures on comparable deadly accidents for Chinese
firefighters. She wouldn't give her name.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[HeavyRescueTech]

omg, 14 fallen brothers. you know, we all grieve when we lose one brother, maybe even 5. We just lost 14 in a single fire. My prayers are with the familes of the departed

[NJFFSA16]

BEIJING (AP) - A memorial was held Sunday for 20 firefighters
killed while battling a blaze in southern China - the worst
accident involving firefighters in the last 50 years, the
government said.
Salvagers recovered the last body Thursday from the debris of a
collapsed eight-story building in Hengyang, a city in Hunan
province. Two firefighters were killed immediately and 19 were
buried. One of those survived.
About 20,000 people attended Sunday's ceremony, which was held
in a city square in Hengyang and was hosted by the acting governor
of Hunan, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Zhou Yongkang,
minister of public security, also gave a speech.
The noon newscast of China Central Television showed row upon
row of people in the square, bundled up against the morning cold.
Framed black-and-white photos of the dead firemen were displayed
and a wreath sat under each portrait.
Earlier in the week, the Ministry of Public Security honored the
firefighters as martyrs for their "heroic deeds and duties,"
Xinhua said.
The ministry said it was the worst accident involving
firefighters since the People's Republic of China was founded in
1949. Sixteen others were injured.
An investigation into the cause of the fire was ongoing.
Xinhua has quoted neighbors as saying the blaze was probably
caused by two escaped criminals roasting red peppers on the first
floor at about 4 a.m. Monday. A guard working that night has been
detained for questioning.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

BEIJING (AP) - Three men who constructed a building that
collapsed and killed 20 firefighters last month in southern China
during a fire have been arrested, the official Xinhua News Agency
reported Monday.
The government says the Nov. 3 disaster was the biggest loss of
life suffered by China's firefighters in more than 50 years.
Authorities say substandard building materials and construction
may have worsened the damage in the blaze in Hengyang, a city in
Hunan province. The eight-story building collapsed as firefighters
were trying to extinguish the flames.
Police arrested Li Wenge, the developer; Li Yongkai, general
manager of the construction company, and Wei Dongheng, chief of the
building project, Xinhua said. There was no indication whether Li
Wenge and Li Yongkai were related.
Li Wenge has been held since mid-November on suspicion of
presenting one set of blueprints to construction officials but
using another set for building, according to state media.
The builders used too few steel reinforcing bars and those that
were used were too narrow, Xinhua said. It said 20 tons (22 short
tons) of bad cement was used during construction.
Li lacked a construction permit and hired workers and architects
that had not been approved by the city government, Xinhua said.
Another Xinhua report, quoting the deputy chief of the
investigation team, said some "government officials had violated
the regulations." But it gave no details.
Xinhua has quoted neighbors as saying the blaze was probably
caused by two escaped criminals roasting red peppers on the first
floor of the building.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)