Five people, including a Russian guest, were confirmed dead in a hotel fire on Saturday evening in a city of the Korean Autonomous Prefecture of Yanbian, Jilin Province, according to local government on Sunday.

 

The blaze, which broke out at around 7:40 PM in the Xinqiao Hotel in Yanji, a city in Yanbian, killed three employees of a Chinese power company, a man who works in Beijing and a Russia guest, said Sui Qingjiang, an official of the prefecture. All five victims were male said the official who did not reveal their names. .

 

Their bodies were found after the fire was extinguished at around midnight. Investigators said one of the dead was tall and fair-skinned and suspected he was a Russian, Sui said.

 

The hotel authorities later confirmed he was a Russian who had come to Yanji for medical treatment. He gave a Chinese name when he checked in.

 

More than 40 guests were resident in the hotel when the fire broke out with the majority of them being safely evacuated. A handful people who had remained behind including some hotel employees escaped by jumping off the building.

 

Two men were also injured during the incident. One of them is receiving medical treatment to a wrist which was badly injured after he jumped from a sixth floor window. The other man has left the hospital.

 

The cause of the fire is still being investigated. Some witnesses said a neon light billboard at the entrance of the hotel could have been the cause as it had earlier been damaged by high winds.

 

Twenty-six fire trucks and 136 firemen joined the rescue operation but the seven-story hotel building was completely destroyed by the time the flames were put out. Four cars parked near the hotel were also destroyed in the blaze. The fire also destroyed four cars parked near the hotel.

 

"Thank heavens the fire engines came quickly,” said a citizen, surnamed Cui, who runs a drugstore across the street. "The fire could have spread to other buildings."

 

Located on a busy downtown street, Xinqiao Hotel was a landmark in Yanji. The city is adjacent to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and also close to Russia. Over half of the 380,000 residents in the city are Korean.

 

 

 

 

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2006)