(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-28 20:52

HANGZHOU -- A spark from a short circuit has been blamed for igniting a deadly building fire in the eastern province of Zhejiang that killed 21 people earlier this month, fire fighters concluded in their investigation on Friday.

The Duoduoxian Flower Shop on the first floor of a building in Wenzhou caught fire when a spark from the short circuit ignited the shop's roof at 8:20 a.m. on December 12. The blaze killed two people in the store and suffocated 19 others exercising in a ballroom on the second floor.

The flower shop and a nearby beauty salon, covering a total of 1,270 square meters, were gutted in the blaze.

Fire fighters extinguished the blaze in three hours. They rescued 113 people from the fire and evacuated 98 others.

Wenzhou police have formally arrested Zhu Xiuling, the legal representative of the flower shop, over the incident.

All the families of the 21 killed have each received 300,000 yuan ($40,760) compensation by the local government.