The municipal government of Urumqi in northwest China has decided to demolish a 12-story building gutted in a fatal fire earlier this week, vice mayor Zhang Hong said on Friday.

Fire fighters extinguished the blaze in the market and office building and an adjacent 20-story hotel in downtown Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on Thursday evening. The fire killed three firemen and injured another.

The blaze erupted in a mop stall on the first floor of the Dehui International Plaza at 8:20 p.m. on Wednesday, a security guard told Xinhua. He said as the fire spread, firemen arrived at the scene in 15 minutes. It then set fire to the hotel, forcing the evacuation of all its occupants.

An investigation into the cause of the accident was underway. The economic loss was yet to be calculated.

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2008)