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| Electrician to Be Prosecuted for Fatal Hospital Fire |
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An electrician blamed for a hospital fire that left 39 people dead in northeastern China city of Liaoyuan will be charged for committing a major offence, local authorities said Thursday. The fire broke out at about 4:30 in the afternoon on Dec. 15, 2005, and was put out at 10:00 at night. It burnt some 5,000 square meters of the four four-storied buildings, which are conjoined to form a square, in the City Central Hospital of Liaoyuan, about 120 km southwest of Changchun, capital of Jilin Province. The fire was the most disastrous in the country's medical institutions since the founding of new China in 1949, Health Minister Gao Qiang has said. Investigations by local police show that the fire disaster was caused by human error in handling a sudden power outage, and Zhang Diankun, who was head of the hospital electrician team and was on duty then was detained. To date, local police have detained 11 people in connection with the hospital fire, including the president and vice president of the hospital, who will face charges of neglecting their duties, according to the provincial public security bureau. The two heads of the hospital did not report the fire to the local fire department until 30 minutes after the fire broke out, according to the provincial fire prevention department. Probes also show that disorderly-and-wrongly-placed electrical cables on the ground at the electrical distribution room of the hospital were another cause of the fire. Therefore, three other detainees who were found to be held responsible for the disorderly electrical distribution room will be charged with committing a major offence together with Zhang, local authorities said. (Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2006) |
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