Twelve arrested over hotel blaze
Police in China’s capital Beijing detained 12 people over a massive hotel fire at a government television complex sparked by an unlicensed fireworks display.
Monday night’s blaze destroyed the unfinished Mandarin Oriental hotel in the capital’s western district, leaving one firefighter dead and seven other people injured.
The 520-foot luxury hotel, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren, was part of a stunning CCTV complex that helped transform the capital’s skyline for last year’s Olympics.
The building also housed television studios, a visitor’s centre and exhibition space.
Four China Central Television staff members and eight employees of the company hired to set off the fireworks were detained on suspicion of causing the fire, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
It identified one of those detained as 50-year-old Xu Wei, the head of construction at the new CCTV headquarters site.
CCTV said that fireworks used in the display were powerful enough to require a special permit, but the broadcaster didn’t apply for permission and ignored police safety warnings.
The eight pyrotechnics crew members fled the scene after the fire broke out, leaving behind 21 boxes of unused fireworks along with equipment for setting them off. They were picked up by police in the city of Langfang, just south of the capital.
CCTV, the beneficiary of massive taxpayer subsidies, had earlier issued an apology for the fire that blazed spectacularly over the city’s western district for five hours.
Fireworks are usually banned in downtown Beijing, although the rule is waived for two weeks over the Lunar New Year holiday.
Monday was the final day for the firework exception, marking the first full moon since the Lunar New Year, and massive barrages exploded for hours throughout the city.
