Blaze in high-rise apartments leaves 53 dead in Shanghai

Other survivors were housed overnight in a gym of a nearby retirement home.

The city government said today that the death toll had risen to 53. It said more than 70 others had been rushed to hospitals.

There were sad scenes at hospitals as relatives searched for their loved ones. At Jing’an Central Hospital, the father of Wang Yinxing, a 30-year-old woman who lived on the 22d floor of the building, searched a list of survivors at the hospital but could not find his daughter’s name.

“She called her husband and said: ‘It’s on fire! I have escaped from the 22d floor to the 24th floor,’ but then the phone got cut off,’’ the father, Wang Zhiliang, 65, said with tears in his eyes. “That was the last we heard from her.’’

Some residents escaped by climbing down scaffolding that had been put up for the renovations. A resident identified as Mr. Zhou told Hong Kong broadcaster Phoenix TV that he and his wife were napping in their 23d floor apartment when they smelled smoke. He said they climbed down the scaffolding four stories before being rescued by firefighters.

An unidentified woman told Shanghai television her only option was to climb down the scaffolding. “If I jumped I would die, if I stayed [in the building] I would die,’’ she said.

Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu, China’s top policeman, called today for an investigation into the cause of the fire.

He said anyone responsible for the blaze would be punished.

One local resident complained today that firefighters, some who climbed scaffolding to save people, had been late getting to the blaze.

“They were too slow. The first fire truck came at least 25 minutes later,’’ said a woman who would identify herself only by her surname, Zhen.

She said she lived across the street and called the fire department as soon as she saw the flames.

Survivors were taken to nine Shanghai hospitals, and a doctor at Jing’an hospital surnamed Zhang said more than 20 seriously hurt people had been admitted for treatment. Most of the survivors had suffered asphyxia from the smoke fumes, another doctor said.