Shanghai guide to fun | D.D's Club Photo Gallery | after the great Shanghai building fire Nov 18,2010

Shanghai police held eight suspects on Tuesday after a Shanghai apartment fire that killed at least 53 people was blamed on unlicensed welding, in a jolt for the growing number of people who live in high-rises in China.

The fire gutted a 28-storey high-rise in China's busy commercial hub, sending plumes of black smoke over the city.

"The fire started because someone was illegally welding on the 10th floor and the spark led to the big fire. The sparks hit the nylon mesh on the outside of the building," Cheng Jiulong, deputy head of the Shanghai police, told a news conference.

He said the eight people would be charged with "responsibility for a major accident", declining to answer repeated questions about who exactly had been detained.

Xinhua news agency said earlier that four people had been detained. It also provided no other details.

The swift steps to assign blame for the fire that swept up the 85-meter-high building showed how worried officials are to ease alarm among residents about the more than four hours it took to put it out.

"We feel that the fire rescue measures and methods weren't fast enough, and secondly they weren't vigorous enough," said Du Deyuan, a 66-year-old resident who said he lived on the 26th floor and was out when the fire broke out.

"People live in high-rises, and then you have this burn all the way from low down to the 28th storey, burned so the whole building is blazing red. What could the people inside do?"

IMG_7420
IMG_7421
IMG_7422
IMG_7426
IMG_7427
IMG_7433
The whole Shanghai building that burnt down
pictures of the Shanghai building fire
The burnt down building in Shanghai
made and left by a little girl in Shanghai for the victims of the Shanghai fire
IMG_7444
IMG_7449
IMG_7451
IMG_7460
IMG_7461
IMG_7464
IMG_7476
IMG_7478
IMG_7479
IMG_7480
IMG_7481
IMG_7484
IMG_7485
IMG_7486
View Slideshow

Rating 5.0 (2 votes)