Beijing, April 19 (BNA) The death toll from a fire in a hospital in Beijing has risen to 29, including 26 patients, authorities said Wednesday.
A nurse, a medical assistant and a family member were killed, said Li Zongrong, deputy head of the Visendingtai District.
The fire that broke out at Changfeng Private Hospital on Tuesday afternoon forced dozens of people to evacuate, forcing some of those trapped to escape through windows using bed sheets tied together.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation but officials say they believe it originated from welding sparks from work that was done in the hospital’s inpatient ward. The Associated Press (AP) reports that authorities have detained 12 people, including the hospital chief and deputy chief, along with the construction crew chief.
Officials said 39 people were being treated for injuries, three of them in critical condition. Rescue crews and medical staff were mobilized from across the city, as teams extracted some of the 142 evacuees from air-conditioning units on the building’s exterior.
Safety rules are frequently ignored in China, but incidents at the Changfeng fire are treated with a higher level of scrutiny. Construction accidents sometimes result from corners being cut in working hours and safety conditions, while local officials are bribed to ignore violations.
The central government has pledged stronger safety measures since a 2015 explosion at a chemical warehouse in the northern port city of Tianjin killed 173 people, most of them firefighters and police officers.
WWA