The scene of the accident

Eight people were killed and three were injured in a fire in a building in Dongguan’s Humen Village on May 6, Southern Metropolis Daily reports. The cause of the fire, which stretched 200 square metres, is still under investigation.

Humen is known nationally as a trading hub for clothes and the first floor of the building in Longquan Subdistrict was used as the location for a Taobao business, the second floor for staff dormitories and the third floor for the family of five who owned the business.

At about 3 a.m., female staff members Qin Xiaoyan, 24, and Zhang Chenxia were woken up by the smell of the smoke. They opened the door of their room and were overwhelmed by the thickness of smoke. They called for help from their room.

A grieving relative

As well as the 20 firefighters that arrived, neighbours helped extinguish the fire. Zhang and Qin escaped with minor respiratory tract burns but five men and three women lost their lives. The dead are being identified.

The area has become known for small fires, but authorities did not do anything about it in time to avert this tragedy.

The reporter from the paper observed that there are no No Smoking signs around. That and the fact that clothes are highly flammable may provide a clue.