A burning candle left in the attic of a wooden apartment house was determined to be the cause of Wednesday's fire in Xiamen, Fujian Province, which claimed four lives and left two people injured, police said.
The fire broke out at about 3:00 AM inside the building on Zhongshan Road, home to seven households with 20 people. A 67-year-old resident named Wang Jiali forgot to blow out the candle after he came back from the toilet at about 2:00 AM. There was no electric light in his attic room.
About an hour later, Wang discovered his table on fire. After failing to extinguish it with a quilt, Wang alerted the neighbors, but they could not keep the fire from spreading.
Firefighters put the blaze out about an hour later. The four victims -- three elderly people and one child -- died of smoke inhalation, police said.
In north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the confirmed death toll from last Thursday's fluorite mine flood has risen to six, rescuers said Wednesday.
Two other miners are still missing with very little chance for survival, said Wang Shihua, deputy director of the rescue headquarters.
The accident took place at the Jinfeng Fluorite Mine in Chifeng at about 10:00 AM on March 31, when water flooded into the 750-meter-long shaft. Nine miners were working 120 meters underground, but only one escaped.
The victims' families began identifying the remains on Wednesday morning and compensation procedures have begun, said Wang.
The owners of the mine, brothers Xu Guizhuo and Xu Xiangguang, have been detained for investigation, according to the local government.
Rescuers are still pumping water and removing silt and rocks from the tunnel.
(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2005)
