Arrests Reported After Fire That Killed 309 in China

Authorities have detained the operators of a dance hall where hundreds of people were killed in a Christmas night fire, state media said today. Revelers in the fourth-floor disco and construction workers on the floors below were among the 309 fatalities from the raging blaze.

The reports said that the disco, located inside a six-story shopping center in the central Chinese city of Luoyang, was operating illegally.

Investigators believe that the fire started in the shopping center’s basement, where renovation work was underway, and that most of the dead were suffocated by the smoke, said an official with Luoyang’s information office who gave only his surname, Li.

Most of the victims died in the disco, the official New China News Agency said. Construction materials may have been blocking exits, local media reported. It was unclear whether the construction workers trapped were on the job at the time.

No details on the identity or number of those detained were immediately available. The English-language China Daily reported today that the dance hall was run by a “private businessman” operating “against certain regulations.”

Put up in the late 1980s, the glass-fronted building with stone colonnades had foam extinguishers but no sprinkler system or fire and smoke alarms, tenants said. Residents said building managers had promised to improve safety.

The fire highlighted a chronic safety problem in many of China’s public buildings.

The news agency said the Ministry of Public Security had released an urgent circular Tuesday ordering all discos and dance halls operating without a license or fire control systems to be closed immediately.