A big fire that occurred at around 4 a.m. on December 26 in a hotel bath center in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, took a heavy toll of 20 lives, according to firemen and hospital sources.

Half of those victims in the fire are men, and the others are women, and they were among the 51 bath-takers in bathrooms in the basement of the Hawaii Grand Hotel in the city's downtown area.

The exceptionally big fire has been extinguished completely by the press time.

The victims in the fire are believed to be suffocated by heavy smoke, which engulfed the entire building. Thirty-one other bath-takers were rescued and sent to nearby hospitals by firemen.

The firemen, divided into five groups, rushed to the hotel in a matter of five minutes. They then encountered great difficulties during their rescue operation since electric power was cut off.

During a one-hour rescue operation, they ran from floor to floor and sorted out and saved all other 150 guests in 87 hotel rooms who were stranded amid flames and smoke, including seven Japanese customers.

Local government leaders showed great concern about the tragedy. At nine o'clock in the morning, Jilin Provincial Governor Hong Hu, Deputy Governor Wei Minxue, and Changchun mayor Li Shu, rushed to the hotel, which remained in a good shape except a 100- sq-m area in the basement.

The officials promptly ordered security departments to find the cause of the fire and bring those held responsible to justice.

Moreover, they urged those leading officials in various departments to thoroughly check their fire control facilities and to prevent the occurrence of any possible fire accidents.

The boss of the bathrooms was said to have Christmas party with his workers, and firemen did not leave the hotel until 1:30 a. m. after they claimed to have finished their security checks, police sources said.

The incident is still under investigation.