Christmas Day bar fire kills 26 in China
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-26 21:28

A local resident told AFP that she heard an explosion late Sunday night and then smelled smoke billowing from the restaurant. "The fire engines arrived soon after I heard the blast," she said.

The aftermath of a bar after a Christmas Day fire is shown. A fire swept a bar in Zhongshan, South China's Guangdong Province November 25, 2005. [Xinhua]

Just 10 days ago, 39 people died and 182 were injured in the northeastern province of Jilin in what officials described as China's worst hospital fire in more than half a century.

Witnesses said the hospital lacked fire extinguishers and alarms and that all the fire escapes were blocked.

China's ministry of public security recorded 222,000 accidental fires across the country from January to November that killed a total of 2,048 people and injured 2,080.