Taiyuan apartment block fire kills 14 in northern China

A fire in an apartment building in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, has killed at least 14 people and sent 38 to hospital. State media reported the blaze broke out around 5pm on Sunday and was extinguished the same day; the cause remains under investigation.

BEIJING: A fire that broke out in an apartment building in northern China killed at least 14 people, state media said on Monday (9 Nov), raising the death toll from the previous night. The blaze occurred in a building in Shanxi province's Taiyuan city around 5pm on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency reported that evening.

"A total of 38 people were sent to hospitals for treatment, among whom five have died," Xinhua reported, raising the death toll to 14 on Monday morning. The flames were extinguished on Sunday, with search and rescue efforts completed, it said. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Deadly fires are relatively common in China due to lax building codes and an often slipshod approach to workplace safety. China launched a campaign against fire hazards in high-rise buildings last November, after a huge blaze engulfed several tower blocks in Hong Kong, killing 168 people. A month later, a fire at a residential building in southern China's Guangdong province killed 12 people. And in July, a fire that engulfed a shoe factory in eastern China killed at least 28 people.