Fire deaths in China down 3% in 2008, but losses up 39%

BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Chinese media) -- There were 133,000 structural fires in China last year, killing 1,385 people and injuring 684 others, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) said on Wednesday.

Those totals were down 16.2 percent, 2.9 percent and 21.6 percent, respectively, it said. The figures exclude fires involving forests, grasslands, the military or the underground part of mines.

Losses from fires surged 39.3 percent to 1.5 billion yuan (219.52 million U.S. dollars), mainly reflecting increased losses in fires in stores, markets and storage facilities, the ministry said.

Last January, a fire in the 12-story Dehui International Plaza in downtown Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, killed five people and destroyed 1,046 business stalls, causing losses of 300 million yuan.

Rural areas and small townships had more fires than cities, with the number of fires in such areas accounting for 57 percent of the total.

Firefighters were busy last year. Along with the Olympics, China had a series of natural disasters: snowstorms during the Lunar New Year holiday, the massive Sichuan Province quake on May 12 and serious floods in southern Guangxi in September.

China has about 130,000 firefighters. More than 150 firefighters were injured and 16 died in the line of duty last year, according to the ministry.