Death toll in Beijing’s hospital fire rises to 29

Beijing, Apr 19 (PTI) The death toll from a major fire at a hospital building in the Chinese capital has risen to 29, officials said here on Wednesday.

The fire which broke out at the Beijing Changfeng Hospital on Tuesday has been extinguished, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

On Tuesday, the official media reported that 21 people were killed in the incident.
More than 70 patients were affected and shifted from the affected hospital admissions building in Beijing’s Fengtai district.

Videos circulating online show some people jumping out of the window and waiting for rescue on the outdoor air conditioning units. Others jumped to lower rooftops, state-run Global Times reported.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

The city has set up a special working team to identify the cause of the accident, and those responsible for the accident will be held accountable in accordance with the law, the report said.

Authorities have instructed all districts to conduct large-scale inspections to identify and eliminate potential safety hazards, preventing any significant safety incidents from occurring as the May Day holidays are approaching.

China will shut down for a week from May 1 to celebrate International Workers Day.
Beijing Changfeng Hospital is a private hospital established in 1985, affiliated with Beijing Changfeng Hospital Corporation.

The hospital, a secondary hospital in China’s three-tier hospital system, is a chain hospital that specialises in the treatment of vascular diseases, especially haemangiomas and vascular malformations, as well as other comprehensive treatment programmes.

In another incident, 11 people died in a factory fire in Wuyi county, Jinhua city in China’s eastern Zhejiang province earlier on Tuesday. PTI KJV FZH AKJ