China Detains Building Chief in TV Complex Blaze

SHARON LaFRANIERE The New York Times 02/12/2009 12:05

In a spate of arrests announced Thursday, Beijing officials put the blame for a Monday fire that destroyed part of the government’s spectacular new media complex squarely on the shoulders of the state-run television network.

The police detained 12 people, including the chief of construction for the new headquarters of China Central Television, or CCTV, and eight employees of the firm the broadcaster hired to put on an illegal fireworks show that the authorities said ignited the blaze.

The fire gutted a nearly completed 520-foot-high futuristic hotel that was part of CCTV’s new $1.1 billion headquarters, sometimes described as an architectural symbol of China’s rising power. One firefighter died, and seven people were injured.

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