The death toll from a hospital fire in northeast China's Jilin Province rose to 39 on Friday.

Twenty-four bodies were found at the scene, and 15 people died after being transferred to other hospitals after the fire engulfed Liaoyuan Central Hospital late on Thursday. Liaoyuan is 120 kilometers southwest of the provincial capital Changchun.

Many jumped from windows or climbed down using bed sheets tied together to escape from the blaze, which could be viewed up to 10 kilometers away, witnesses said.

"We had a blackout soon after the fire broke out," said 42-year-old Dong Xiujuan, who jumped from the third floor and broke both legs and her waist.

"I became so desperate in the darkness as the corridors and rooms filled up with smoke," she sobbed, saying that her 73-year-old father, who was undergoing treatment at the hospital, was still missing. Her mother and sisters searched all hospitals that received transferred patients but to no avail.

"Two patients in the room, including my father, were too sick to jump from the windows," she recalled.

Nurse Chen Yanni said she helped 10 people escape using knowledge learnt from television. "I told the patients to cover their mouths with a wet towel and to climb down the window using bed sheets tied together," she said.

Xia Yong, a doctor with the hospital, told China Daily that most of those who jumped from the third or fourth floor either died or suffered bone fractures.

But a 15-day-old baby boy was safe after being thrown from the window and caught by his father on the ground.

Local rescue headquarters confirmed on Friday evening that 182 people were receiving medical treatment at seven other hospitals in the city, including 95 patients, 74 relatives, 11 hospital staff and two firefighters. Twenty-eight were in critical condition.

The Jilin Provincial Department of Health sent 34 medical workers on Thursday night to Liaoyuan to help with the rescue operation.

As the biggest hospital in the city, the four-story Central Hospital has 568 beds. There were 235 patients in the hospital when the fire broke out.

Almost all of the hospital was destroyed by fire. The blaze was put out at 9:30 PM by about 200 firefighters. Fire engines from Changchun and nearby Yitong County also came to the rescue.

An initial investigation showed the fire started in a power room, local officials said. No further details were available.

Jilin Governor Wang Min and Party Secretary Wang Yunkun rushed to the scene along with senior officials from the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Health. Liu Jinguo, vice minister of public security, said DNA testing would be used to identify the dead if necessary.

Meanwhile, more than 700 local residents offered to donate blood for the wounded.

"When I heard that the hospital was running short of blood, my husband immediately drove me to the city's blood center," said laid-off worker Xu Dongping. "I would like to help."

An urgent notice issued yesterday by the Ministry of Public Security urged a nationwide fire control overhaul at hospitals, schools, theatres and shopping malls.

A number of accidents have occurred recently throughout the country, including coal mine blasts that claimed hundreds of lives and a major chemical spill that poisoned the Songhua River in northeast China.

(China Daily December 17, 2005)