A burning cigarette end left by a female worker was confirmed to
have caused Saturday's fire of an underclothing factory that killed
nine other female workers in northeast China's Liaoning Province, said local police on
Sunday.
The fire that broke out at around 3:30?AM on Saturday at
the Shuanglu underclothing factory in Sujiatun District, Shenyang
started from the first floor, when the stub ignited the cloth,
according to local police.
Three of the 13 workers sleeping in their second-floor
dormitories managed to escape, nine were killed and another one was
slightly injured.
Compensation is under negotiation, local officials said.
Shuanglu was a private factory registered in 2002 and came into
operation in this past August, with a two-story building taking
up300 square meters.
(Xinhua News Agecny September 18, 2006)
