Eleven people are dead after a karaoke hall fire in Chengde,
north China's Hebei Province, early on Wednesday.
The blaze broke out at about 4:30 AM in the Blue Sky foot
massage parlor on the ground floor of a two-storey building known
as Gedu Karaoke Hall, according to the county government.
The parlor was not open for business at the time but the owner
and his staff were sleeping in the residential quarters on the
second floor.
The male owner and ten masseuses were killed. Two others were
rescued.
A local pedlar alerted the police at 4:47?AM after he saw
smoke pouring out from all sides of the building. The fire was
extinguished at about 5:10 AM.
Photographs posted on the Internet show the entrance of the
building to be scorched and the windows of the first floor
broken.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation and the local
Public Security Bureau has not released any further details.
The local government will hold an emergency conference in the
afternoon in an effort to launch a large-scale work safety
inspection.
(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2007)