Hotel fire in northeast China kills 19

Aug. 25 (UPI) -- A hotel fire broke out Saturday in China's Heilongjiang Province killed 19 people and injured 23 people

The cause of the fire, which happened at the Beilong Hot Spring Hotel in the provincial capital of Harbin, is under investigation. The New York Times reported Harbin will host a marathon attracting thousands to the city on Sunday.

The hotel is located a mile from the marathon's finish line near the north bank of the Songhua River. An announcement by Harbin police said the marathon would go ahead as scheduled on Sunday.

The Ministry of Emergency Management sent a work team to Harbin to guide the investigation and government officials are launching city-wide safety inspections to prevent fires in hotels, hospitals, senior citizen homes, schools, shopping centers, entertainment venues and tourist sites.

China's last major hotel fire in February 2017 in killed 10 people in Jiangxi Province. The fire began at the four-story HNA Platinum Mix Hotel in the province's capital Nanchang.

At the time of that deadly fire, construction workers were working on the second floor of the building, which is attached to a 24-story apartment building. Initial investigations found it was caused by the cutting of decoration materials.