An illegal garment shop in southern Beijing caught fire early Monday, killing 17 migrant workers and their family members who may not have been able to escape the four-story building because of bars on the windows. People had to kick out the window bars or leap from the roof to escape.
Another 24 people were injured in the fire nut the cause of the blaze is not known yet. The first-floor garment shop was unlicensed, and the floors above it were used to house workers and their families. Iron bars installed over windows to keep out burglars may have prevented people from escaping, it added.
"We saw people jumping from the building. About six or seven people, dressed in pajamas, flung themselves from the first floor after kicking open the bars on one window," local resident Wang Xuegang was quoted as saying. "It was a real nightmare. Some dived from the top floor," said Wang.
The agency quoted Chang Hongyan, the deputy government head of the local Daxing district, as saying most died of smoke inhalation. Firefighters had trouble reaching the blaze because their trucks couldn't fit down the neighborhood's narrow alleys.