Photo taken on Dec. 4, 2008 shows the site of a fire in Qingdao, a coastal city of east China's Shandong Province. Eleven workers were killed and 10 others injured in a fire that broke out early Thursday morning in a dormitory of Qingdao Jiayuan Michael Food Co., Ltd. [Xinhua]

The firefighters arrived after about 15 minutes.

"The bungalow was on fire and the area was shrouded in thick fumes," said Xu Wenfeng, a leader of the firefighters. "The fire on the northern part of the building was especially fierce. The flames lit up the sky."

It took 80 firefighters and 10 fire engines less than an hour to put out the fire.

The people who died are all males. Six of them were from central China's Henan Province and the rest were from Shandong.

"The company has informed their families. They were expected to arrive in Qingdao on Thursday night or Friday morning to deal with the aftermath," the official said.

When the fire broke out, there were 84 bunk beds in the building but only 51 workers inside. In surrounding dormitories there were more than 160 people, all of whom managed to escape, the official said.

None of the company's food processing areas were affected.

Shangdong's vice governor Wang Junmin, along with officials from the provincial work safety, public security and firefighting bureaux, arrived at the company on Thursday afternoon. An investigation team was set up.

Established in 1998, the Jiayuan Michael Food Co,. Ltd is a Sino-U.S. joint venture producing frozen fish. It employs 600 people.

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2008)