China Life Insurance Co. Ltd Monday provided a total of 123,480 yuan (US$ 15,000) to the family members of four people who died in a fire in a shopping center, which killed 53 people in northeast China's Jilin City, Jilin Province, Sunday.

"Other insurance companies have been ordered to pay their compensation installments in the next few days," said Liu Dianguang, deputy director of Jilin Province's Insurance Regulatory Commission. "All the insurance companies must handle their compensation according to their insurance contracts with the victims as soon as possible."

"I have no complaint about China Life Insurance's compensation installment," said Sun Fuxiang, whose wife died in the accident.

A special team of 200 local officials has been formed to offer psychological counseling to the injured and the families of those who died in the fire.

The blaze started at 11:20 a.m. Sunday on the second floor of the Zhongbai Shopping Mall, where many people were doing weekend shopping, leaving 53 people dead and 68 injured.

Built in the 1990s, the four-story building at a downtown crossroads linking two major streets accommodated 111 shops and about 120 shopkeepers within an area of 4,000 square meters. The first and second floors of the building were for shopping, the third was a bathhouse, and the fourth a games hall and a disco.

A preliminary investigation showed that the fire had started in a temporary storehouse near a boiler room.

Sun Huashan, deputy head of the State Administration for the Supervision of Workplace Safety, traveled to Jilin City to oversee the handling of the disaster.

Sun called an urgent meeting early Monday, shortly after his arrival in the city. He urged local Party and government authorities to learn from the accident, and to improve safety in public places with a campaign to root out hidden hazards.

(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2004)