The blaze broke out shortly before midnight when a group of seven people lit fireworks at their table.

All seven have been detained, along with seven bar staff who turned themselves in, Zheng Zuying, vice-mayor of Changle, said.

Police are looking for the owner of the bar.

All 112 of the city's entertainment venues have been asked to close temporarily to allow for safety inspections to be carried out, Zheng said.

"The explosion of fireworks set the ceiling alight and the bar was soon engulfed in flames," he said.

Firefighters took 30 minutes to bring the fire under control, he said.

One of the injured is in a critical condition, while the other 21 are being treated in hospital, he said.

The families of the 17 people killed gathered yesterday at the city's funeral parlor.

The Fujian provincial health department sent seven experts to aid the medical effort at the Changle Hospital two hours after the fire, the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.

Fourteen of the victims have been identified, it said.

The Changle government will pay all medical bills for those injured, it said on its website yesterday.

Yang Zhixiang, a farmer from the town of Longfeng, said the chief of his town told him the government will pay him 150,000 yuan in compensation for the loss of his 21-year-old daughter.

"My girl Yang Xiaofang was a bartender and she ran out of the bar when the fire started. But she and her colleague died later when they went back to try and save others," Yang told China Daily yesterday.

Chen Yuanchun, a 26-year-old survivor, said from hospital yesterday: "I was in a lot of pain and it was really dark. Some sort of oil dripped on me from the ceiling and burned me as I tried to run outside.

"The fire spread really fast, but there was no alarm or any extinguishers to put it out with," he told China Daily.

"The doors only opened inward and people got stuck on the narrow stairs."