国内英语新闻:China's shopping center blaze kills 19, biggest fire casualties since 2009

JILIN, Jilin, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- A fire that broke out in a northeast China shopping mall lasted 12 hours, leaving at least 19 people dead and 27 injured in the country's worst fire since 2009, government officials said Saturday.

The deadly fire sounded an alarm to fire departments throughout the country just four days before national Fire Prevention Day, and has prompted a nationwide campaign to stamp out fire threats during this dry and windy winter season.

The mall rescue operation ended at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, nearly 24 hours after the fire broke out at Jilin Commercial Building on Hunchun Road, Jilin City, Jilin Province, Liu Qizhi, a spokesman with the municipal government told reporters. Further, Liu said that 24 of the 27 injured remain hospitalized, but their conditions are stable.

On Saturday, officials expressed relief about news that over 80 older women who were trapped in the blaze managed to escape unharmed.

Zhang Liying, one of the women, said they were participating in their usual morning dancing group on the mall's fifth floor when the fire broke out.

"We saw flames and thick black smoke surge from downstairs. We called the firemen, told them where we were, and then climbed out of the window to the balcony, one by one," Zhang said.

After being rescued, some of the women tearfully hugged each other following their near-death escape.

Businesses started to reopen in the shopping area on Hunchun Road on Saturday night, while insurance company workers and store owners began assessing their losses.

Currently, work crews continue combing the ruins of the five-story shopping mall, built in 1987, to determine the cause of the fire. Also, officials report that the complex's general manager has been detained for questioning.

An initial investigation points to the fire originating on the mall's first floor, where home appliances and cosmetic products are sold, but soon spread to the fifth floor. Clothes, bed covers, quilts and other highly flammable goods were on display from the second to fourth floors.

Following the mall fire, the Ministry of Public Security issued a circular ordering fire departments across the country to learn from the incident, stay on high alert, and review prevention measures to guard against similar incidents.

The circular reported that casualties in the Jilin mall fire were the biggest since 2009. Officials said a team of investigators, led by ministry officials, were on their way to Jilin.

"As the northern region enters winter and temperatures starts to drop in the southern region, fire threats have greatly increased," the circular notes, adding that there has already been a string of fires that caused heavy casualties in October.

According to the latest available data, 729 people were killed in more than 89,049 fires that broke out across China in the first eight months of this year.

In 2009, at least 945 people were killed in fires across the country , official statistics indicate.