Smouldering incense suspected in temple blaze

SMOULDERING incense left inside a bamboo temple as offerings to the gods was probably responsible for one of two deadly fires that killed at least 93 people in China over the weekend, authorities said yesterday.

The temple fire killed 40 women in Wufeng village in eastern Zhejiang province, while 53 people died when a blaze swept through a crowded shopping mall in Jilin, some 1,000 miles farther northeast.

Preliminary investigations suggest the mall fire started in a temporary storehouse near a boiler room at the back of the building, according to the state news agency Xinhua.

The two disasters in far flung cities highlighted China's poor fire safety standards.

One of China's last major fires, a blaze at a Beijing internet café that killed 25 people in June 2002, sparked a public outcry over shoddy safety standards.

Similar concerns erupted after a blaze at a dance hall in the city of Luoyang on December 25, 2000, which killed 309 disco revellers and construction workers.

In Wufeng, site of the temple fire, a local government official said investigators suspected the blaze was caused by incense offerings.

But it was not the final conclusion and Yang Caihong, a resident of Qunle village about 10 miles away, said it may have been caused by smouldering cigarette.

"The fire was caused by a woman smoking cigarettes outside. She's still alive," Yang said.

Police arrested a man they said had organised the prayer session in the thatched, bamboo hut, which was less than 650 square feet, Xinhua said.

Police and state media said the villagers were engaging in "superstitious activities" banned after the Communists took power in 1949 and cracked down on an array of beliefs, including traditional folk religions common in the vast countryside.

State television said six people were injured in the fire, which razed the structure.

Xinhua said one of the injured died yesterday, bringing the death toll to 40.

Television footage showed clothing strewn on the charred ground and investigators combing the site at night behind a cordon.

Authorities were also investigating further the cause of the fire that swept through the shopping mall in Jilin Sunday, killing 53 people and injuring 71.

Many people, who were bundled in thick coats against the sharp cold, jumped from top floors of the four-storey building, witnesses said.

Wooden boards that were used to carry the dead and injured later lay strewn around the shopping centre, wet with blood.

Most of the victims were customers enjoying baths and billiard games on the upper floors of the shopping centre that had 111 shops and covered around 4,000 square yards.