Government and hospital officials responsible for a fatal hospital fire last year in northeast China's Jilin Province have been punished, according to a report jointly released by the provincial discipline inspection department and work safety administration on Saturday.

Fourteen people who were directly responsible for the fire in Liaoyuan Central Hospital were handed over to local judicial organs to ascertain criminal responsibilities.

The fourteen include Wang Shaowen, head of the hospital and also former deputy head of the city's health bureau, Li Mingming, deputy head of the hospital, Zhao Yonggang, chief of the hospital's general services section, and Zhang Diankun, head of the hospital's electrician squad, the report said.

Seven officials from the hospital, the city fire brigade and health bureaus were also dismissed, demoted or given serious warnings.

The blaze, which killed 37 people and injured 95 others on December 15, 2005, was caused by a short circuit in the hospital's power distribution chamber, and spread rapidly as inflammable material caught fire.

A joint investigation by the State Council and Jilin Provincial government found that the hospital had been on fire for 30 minutes before firefighters arrived.

Investigators said the delay in contacting emergency services was the major cause for the worst hospital blaze in the country in more than 50 years.

According to the investigation team, Li Mingming initially thought the fire could be contained, and put off reporting it for fear that the arrival of firefighters would create a panic. By the time the alarm was sounded, the situation was out of control.

It took more than 200 firefighters six hours to extinguish the blaze. Apart from the people killed and injured, the fire caused direct economic losses of 8.21 million yuan (about US$1 million).

The hospital reopened on January 26 with many new facilities.

(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2006)