Fire damages 1,000-year-old temple in E. China
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A 1,000-year-old building is believed to have been destroyed in a fire at a Buddhist temple in Fuzhou, capital of east China's Fujian Province, Monday.
Local authorities confirmed the fire engulfed the grand hall and one of the wooden chambers of the Fahai Temple in downtown Fuzhou at 3:12 a.m. and burnt for an hour, but they have yet to assess the damage.
The fire prevention arm of Fuzhou's public security bureau sent 21 fire engines and 147 firefighters to the scene, and the flames were put out at 4:11 a.m., a spokesman of the bureau said.
He said no casualties were reported and all the temple's cultural relics were unharmed.
But photos of the scene posted online showed scarlet flames lighting up the night sky and licking up the temple's grand hall. "I smelt an acrid smell and woke up," said an Internet user who posted three photos at qq.com under the name "Pleasant Afternoon."
