A huge fire engulfed a 26-storey office block in northern China Tuesday, with TV footage showing burning chunks of cladding falling off its facade, although no casualties were reported.

Authorities were investigating the cause of the blaze, which broke out early in the morning in Shijiazhuang city near Beijing and spread rapidly, eating into the insulation material on the outside of the tower.

The fire has been brought under control, and no casualties have been reported so far, China's national fire safety authority said in a social media post.

Footage from state broadcaster CCTV showed a massive plume of smoke rising from the tower while burning debris fell onto the street below.

The post was accompanied by a video that showed the aftermath of the fire, with one side of the tower almost completely blackened, while smoke continued to rise from the building.

Other videos circulated by users on the Twitter-like Weibo platform appeared to show towering jets of water sprayed by fire engines onto the upper floors of the building as the fire raged.

Related Links
Forest and Wild Fires - News, Science and Technology

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Fire poses long-term risk to forest carbon sink: study
Paris (AFP) Feb 25, 2021
Stronger and more frequent wild fires are reducing forests' ability to store carbon in a trend that will likely not be offset by planting new trees, a study said Thursday. As Earth continues to heat due to ever higher concentrations of greenhouse gases in its atmosphere, both the number of fires, as well as how fiercely and long they burn, increases. Slower growing tree species are better at surviving such intense blazes, but they capture less atmospheric carbon and reduce nutrient availability, ... read more