Two people have been reported missing from Wednesday's two-building fire that killed three firemen and injured another.

The fire, which began in a 12-story market and office building, spread to an adjacent 20-story hotel. Xinjiang Doowin Industrial and Commercial Group Co., Ltd., owner of the market-office building, has confirmed that two people, a man in his 30s and a woman in her 20s, were missing.

Witnesses said the two missing, both of whom worked for the planning department of the Doowin International Plaza -- the market-office building -- were in their office when the fire broke out on the first floor.

"Their families and colleagues have had no contact with them since the fire occurred," said Gou Wei, spokesman with the Doowin group.

Three firemen - Zhu Xiaolei, Zhang Yu and Gao Feng - were killed in the blaze while searching for anyone who might have been trapped in the fire.

Several thousands of local people gathered in a funeral hall on Friday to pay homage to the three firemen.

The yard of the No. 2 fire-fighting team, where the funeral hall was set up, was filled with numerous wreaths presented by vendors from the market building, delegates of local business entities and people from all walks of life. Many donated money to the family members of the dead.

"We were deeply moved by the firemen who devoted their lives to saving the people and our goods. I will remember them for the rest of my life," said a middle-aged vendor, who only identified herself as Zhang.

"We feel so sorry about their death, we want to show our respect to them," said Guan Jun, a taxi driver, who presented a wreath along with her wife and son to the deceased.

Top managers with the Doowin group, including president Qian Jinnai, have been requested to remain in Urumqi for an investigation, and the property and accounts of Doowin International Plaza, a subsidiary of the Doowin group and the building where the blaze began, have been frozen, according to local police.

The blaze began in a mop vendor's stall at 8:20 p.m. on Wednesday in the plaza, which is in downtown Urumqi, capital of the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

A security guard who had worked in the building said that firemen had arrived at the scene within 15 minutes but were unable to prevent the blaze from spreading to the hotel.

Nearly 1,200 firemen took more than 22 hours to extinguish the blaze, which was finally put out on Thursday night. Six people were rescued.

Opened in 2003, the Doowin International Plaza was a wholesale market that housed about 2,000 vendors of clothing, toys and household supplies. It had a total area of about 100,000 square meters. It is also where the headquarters of the Doowin Group were located.

"We suffered great losses in the fire, even losing most of the Doowin Group's files, but we will try our best to cooperate with the police for the investigation, "said Gou Wei.

According to the city's fire control department, most of the goods in the market were destroyed in the fire.

Although the costs have yet to be calculated, media reports said the total losses might be several hundred million yuan, as the vendors had stocked up for a busy shopping period in upcoming Lunar New Year, which falls in early February.

The Doowin Group has set up a temporary office to help vendors who have suffered huge economic losses to resume business in a subsidiary hotel.

Despite bitter weather, with temperatures falling to minus 20 degrees Celsius, most of the vendors stayed near the market overnight, waiting for the fire to be put out.

"What shall I do? All my goods must have been burned," said a clothes vendor surnamed Li.

Li had three storehouses and five booths in the plaza with goods she said were worth more than 5 million yuan.

According to Li, among her friends who also had booths in the plaza, losses ran from some 300,000 yuan to more than 6 million yuan.

The Doowin Group said in a statement on Friday that the fire control facilities of the Doowin International Plaza, the market-office building, and the Doowin Grand Hotel had both passed inspections by the city's fire control department

The group had spent more than 10 million yuan to install a "self-contained" fire control system, such as fire detectors, extinguishers and hydrants, in the plaza and the hotel and it had also provided regular fire control training to the vendors, said the statement.

However, Dai Yiqiang, deputy director of the Urumqi fire control bureau, said the fire control facilities in the plaza and hotel were "utterly inadequate" to deal with a major blaze.

The city government has set up a task force to investigate the fire and deal with the aftermath, said vice mayor Zhang Hong. The government would also demolish the building and launch a city-wide safety inspection of public facilities such as shopping malls, markets, hotels, theaters and Internet cafes.

(Xinhua News Agency January 5, 2008)