China: Two dead in high-rise blaze

Firefighters were forced to give up trying to extinguish a blaze today that engulfed a 12-storey wholesale market building in north-western China because of fears it may collapse, state media said.

Two firemen were killed and another was missing after trying to search for occupants of the building, Xinhua News Agency said.

It said the fire started about 8pm Wednesday. By today it had burned out all the building’s lower floors, while the top three floors were still burning.

Xinhua said the fire spread to an adjacent 20-floor hotel but was brought under control. The hotel’s occupants had already been evacuated from the building as a precaution.

The building in central Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang region, normally has more than 2,000 people selling clothes, toys and various commodities, Xinhua said. It had been cleared of customers about 20 minutes before the fire started, it said.