29 killed in China hospital fire

ALBAWABA - At least 29 people have been killed in a fire at a private Beijing hospital, officials said, pointing to preliminary investigations suggesting that the blaze was caused when flammable paint materials ignited during renovation work at the site.

The fire broke out just before 1pm (05:00 GMT) on Tuesday in the eastern wing of the Beijing Changfeng Hospital, and was extinguished a half-hour later, according to state media.

Li Zongrong, deputy mayor of Beijing’s western Fengtai district where the hospital is located, expressed his “deep condolences” as he announced the higher toll at a press conference on Wednesday, Aljazeera Network reported.

It said all but three of those who died were patients. Other news outlets said that the hospital's director was among the deceased.

Videos going viral on various social media platforms showed bedsheets hanging loosely off patients' windows, where some of the desperate survivors escaped the raging flames. 

State broadcaster CCTV reported that preliminary investigations suggested the blaze had been caused by "sparks generated during the internal renovation and construction of the inpatient department of the hospital."

The sparks "ignited the volatiles of the flammable paint on the site," it said.

Aljazeera said dozens were evacuated from the seven-storey building as the "flames took hold, with 39 people being treated for injuries sustained in the fire." Three of them are in a critical condition, officials said, and 18 are in a serious condition, according to the network.

Meanwhile, public anger was rising over the high death toll and the Chinese government's initial attempts to tighten the flow of information about the incident to the people, Bloomberg and other news outlets reported.