Leaking ammonia may have caused deadly slaughterhouse blaze in Jilin
Three blasts reported before flames rip through locked building at poultry processing plant in Jilin in mainland's deadliest blaze for 13 years
At least 120 workers died when they were trapped inside a locked slaughterhouse that caught fire at a poultry farm in Dehui, Jilin, yesterday.
State-owned China News Agency reported on Tuesday that 70 people were injured in the fire that broke out in the early hours of Monday morning. It is the mainland's deadliest blaze for 13 years.
The number of deaths is expected to rise, with survivors saying there were about 300 workers inside the poultry farm's No 2 slaughtering and processing unit when the fire broke out at about 6am. The farm is owned by Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry.
There was no official account of how the fire started, although witnesses said they heard three explosions, allegedly caused by leaking liquid ammonia - a common refrigerant used in large cold-storage areas. Others suspected the fire might have been started by an electrical fault.
Xinhua reported that only about 100 workers were able to escape, with the facility's complicated interior and narrow exits hampering rescue efforts.
Many of the workers were believed to have been knocked out by the high concentration of toxic ammonia in the air, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.