Tens of thousands of people turned out in the bitter cold yesterday for the funeral of three firefighters who died on duty last week while battling a fire that raged for 30 hours in Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The three firefighters, Zhu Xiaolei, Zhang Yu and Gao Feng, were honored with the title "Revolutionary Martyr" by the Ministry of Public Security.

They died on Thursday while searching for trapped survivors in the 12-story Doowin International Plaza that housed more than 2,000 small stalls on the first four levels and offices on the remaining floors.

The Doowin Group, owner of the plaza, said it would return the rent to its tenants while an employee said the damage to the property alone might be 380 million yuan (US$52.27 million), Xinhua news agency reported today.

The Doowin Group also promised to find stalls for 500 tenants at another property it owns.

All of the 1,046 tenants in the plaza and 600 of more than 800 investors have registered for compensation. Total losses are still being calculated, the report said.

Most of the tenants in the building were from Zhejiang Province.

Taizhou City's Chamber of Commerce yesterday donated more than 280,000 yuan to the affected tenants, according to the report.

The Doowin Group's bank accounts have been frozen.

Two others were reported missing after the fire and police have begun DNA tests to identify two bodies recovered from the debris on Saturday, according to previous reports.

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 and opened in 2003. The Doowin Group's headquarters was in the building.

The government of Urumqi will demolish the 12-story building since it was gutted in the fire.

(Shanghai Daily January 8, 2008)