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One dead, three injured in east China hotel fire

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-06 13:43

HEFEI -- One person was confirmed dead and three others were injured when a hotel in east China's Anhui Province caught fire early Tuesday, the local government said.

All the victims were officials of Changfeng County, about 70 km north of the provincial capital Hefei, a county government spokesman said.

Liu Zebin, a senior county official, was suffocated when his bedroom in Changfeng Hotel caught ablaze at 12:50 a.m., the spokesman said.

The county chief and a deputy chief were seriously injured after jumping out their windows on the fourth floor to escape the fire. Another official suffered mild burns, said the spokesman.

He said none of the officials was native to Changfeng County. "They were working here under an exchange program for a year or two and had not brought their families along."

The county government had therefore arranged their lodging at Changfeng Hotel in Shuihu town at the county seat, he said.

Other guests and employees of the hotel survived without injuries.

Police are investigating the cause of the fire, which was put out in about an hour.

Changfeng is a rural county with about 800,000 people.