Mandarin Oriental Beijing: New Year Fireworks Set Hotel Ablaze (China)
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Mandarin Oriental Beijing: New Year Fireworks Set Hotel Ablaze (China)
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Category: Asia Pacific - China -
This is a press release selected by our editorial committee and published online for free on 2009-02-11
Crowds gathered in the downtown Beijing streets to watch as an unfinished luxury hotel erupted into flames Monday night.
The nearly completed Mandarin Oriental hotel caught fire after it was showered with sparks from fireworks set off as part of the Lunar New Year festivities. The 241-room hotel sits in the heart of Beijing's business district.
Normally fireworks are highly restricted in the downtown area, the Associated Press reported. Beijing officials had allowed more displays in the city center for the Lantern Festival, which marks the last day of Chinese New Year celebrations.
The hotel had been used as a filming location during last year's Beijing Summer Olympics, but wasn't set to officially open to guests until mid-2009. So far no deaths have been reported, but seven people injured by the blaze have been taken to a nearby hospital, China's state media reported.
"The building was like an oven, red inside," Hu Jing, a 26-year-old paralegal and witness to the disaster, told the Washington Post.
"In less than twenty minutes, the fire had engulfed half the building. Within half an hour, all of it was on fire. I thought, there goes billions of dollars, just burning."
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