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BEIJING: Investigators said Tuesday that fireworks set off to celebrate the Lunar New Year were to blame for a spectacular blaze that engulfed a luxury hotel being built inside China's state TV headquarters.
One firefighter died after inhaling toxic fumes while battling the fire at the Mandarin Oriental's flagship new hotel in Beijing that began on Monday night and raged for more than five hours, according to the city's media office.
Six other people were injured, but the Mandarin Oriental said no-one was in the hotel when the fire started, indicating the death toll was unlikely to climb sharply.
The 159-metre tall hotel was just 200 hundred metres from the futuristic CCTV tower that has quickly won fame as one of Beijing's most stunning buildings and a striking symbol of China's new-found global power.
Both buildings were designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas' Office of Metropolitan Architecture and due to open this year.
Investigators on Tuesday were probing how fireworks triggered the blaze and if they were brought into the complex that housed the two buildings. The construction site was closed to the public.
"The blaze was set off due to the irregular use of fireworks," the city government's media office said in a statement.
"The concrete causes of the incident are being further investigated."
Fireworks erupted across Beijing on Monday night to celebrate the Lantern Festival that marks the official end of the Lunar New Year celebrations.
Letting off fireworks on Lunar New Year's Eve, which fell on January 25 this year, and throughout the festive period is a long-held Chinese tradition based on the belief that the noise will ward off evil spirits and ghosts.
But it is also a notoriously dangerous practice, and was as such banned in Beijing between 1994 and 2005.
The ban in Beijing was lifted due to popular demand, following similar moves in 200 Chinese cities a year earlier, and the past two-and-a-half weeks has seen one of the most intense fireworks frenzies yet across the city.
Remnants of firecrackers were found on the roof of the hotel, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
The fire sent flames, sparks and huge clouds of smoke high into the night sky over the eastern part of Beijing, drawing thousands of picture-snapping spectators, and many people continued to crowd around the scene on Tuesday.
The Mandarin Oriental's website said the 241-room hotel was to be the group's flagship property in China and one of Beijing's most luxurious hotels.
However its statement about the fire said it did not own the building, only that it was contracted to run the hotel.
The city government said the exterior of the hotel had been severely damaged, but the rooms inside did not collapse and the 234-metre CCTV tower was not impacted.
The complex, built at a cost of five billion yuan (US$710 million), was one of many amazing buildings to rise ahead of last year's Beijing Olympics.
Some had described the CCTV tower as one of the most daring pieces of architecture ever attempted.
Two cantilevered arms edge towards each other from twin towers that lean over at a sharp angle, with 10,000 steel beams locking the structure together.
Other landmarks include Swiss architects Herzog and De Meuron's Bird's Nest main Olympic stadium and the bubble-wrapped "Water Cube."
French architect Paul Andreu also designed the National Grand Theatre, renowned for a massive titanium-tinted dome.
An enormous new airport terminal designed by British architect Norman Foster also opened last year.
- AFP/yb
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