![](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20080718/000cf1bdd03f09ea2bb004.jpg)
The picture shows heavy smoke rising to the sky when a blaze broke out at a plastic packaging factory on Thursday, July 17, 2008 in Shanghai. [Photo: chinanews.com]
An overhead beam crushed three firefighters to death and injured nine others as they fought a fire at a plastic packaging factory on Thursday in Shanghai.
Structural flaws in the storehouses are blamed for the accident, police said.
The blaze broke out at around 12:20 p.m. in the storehouses of Rexam Plastic Packaging (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. in Fengxian District, according to the municipal firefighting and work safety departments.
At 2:05 p.m., a major support beam, 50 meters long, suddenly fell and crushed many firefighters. Three died at the scene, while nine others were injured.
![](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20080718/000cf1bdd03f09ea2bc205.jpg)
The picture shows heavy smoke rising to the sky when a blaze broke out at a plastic packaging factory on Thursday, July 17, 2008 in Shanghai. [Photo: chinanews.com]
The three dead firefighters – Yao Lei, 20, Shi Jianhua, 31, and Yu Hai, 27 – were all from the Fengxian firefighting detachment. They were all praised by the city authorities.