CCTV site manager questioned about fire

By Cui Xiaohuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-12 07:42

At least one CCTV official is being questioned for his role in Monday night's fatal fire, Caijing magazine reported.

Xu Wei, site manager for the broadcaster's new headquarters in Beijing, is being questioned about the blaze, which was started by CCTV staff and caused billions of yuan's worth of damage, it said.

Caijing removed the report from its website yesterday, sources with the magazine told China Daily.

According to a profile on the CCTV website, 50-year-old Xu, a Beijing native, has planned and organized numerous broadcast events for the network and presided over the establishment of its office system.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate is closely watching the investigation for evidence of any neglect on the part of CCTV officials, its newspaper, the Procuratorial Daily, reported yesterday.

Prosecutors in Beijing have begun speaking with several suspects, it said.

The newspaper also said it had obtained a text message that had been circulated among CCTV staff on Monday. It asked them to contribute 19.90 yuan ($3) toward the cost of a Lantern Festival event and fireworks display at the new headquarters at 8 pm.

Similar displays have been held at the site for the past two years, but the cost has risen from 300,000 yuan in 2007 to 1 million yuan this year, the newspaper said.

The devastation caused by the botched display was the worst of its kind for many years, Beijing's fire department said on Tuesday.

Twenty-nine-year-old Zhang Jianyong died while tackling Monday's blaze, while six of his colleagues who were injured are still in hospital.