The fire broke out at "Muma Ren (Horse Herder)" bar at around 11:30 am, local time, quickly spread to the flower market nearby and burned it before firefighters arrived, according to witnesses.

Woman Street, one of the city's largest clothes markets located close to the flower market, luckily escaped the fire due to efficient measures taken by the firemen.

Hundreds of people who were shopping at the flower and clothes markets were evacuated in an orderly manner by local security staff and police immediately. It remains unclear how many people were injured in the fire.

The city's firemen arrived at the spot within half an hour after the fire started, said a saleswoman of a craftwork shop near the flower market.

But some witnesses said the firemen were inefficient, and that if conditions had been like they were on Sunday - winds of force 8 - the fire surely would have spread rampantly and swallowed the nearby Woman Street.

One of the firemen admitted the fire would have been hard to control under Sunday's gales.

Though the fire was put out within two hours, the Laitai Flower Market, which opened only four months ago, still suffered severe damage.

An official with the flower market said in a telephone interview Monday afternoon that losses had not been calculated yet but would certainly be "enormous."

Police sources said the newly built flower market was almost completely destroyed by the fire. Fortunately, however, only two to three clothes shops along Woman Street were touched by the fire, the police said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, according to the police.

How such a large fire got started at the bar, which has a security staff of nearly a dozen, remains a question police are working to answer.

(China Daily January 8, 2002)