Help pours in for hospital fire victims
By He Na (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-20 06:27

CHANGCHUN: Donations have poured in for survivors of the hospital fire in Northeast China's Jilin Province that claimed the lives of 39 people and left 182 injured.

About 3.4 million yuan (US$370,000) and goods worth 300,000 yuan (US$37,000) have been handed over after the blaze at Central Hospital in the city of Liaoyuan.

Residents have also queued at a blood centre to give supplies, with bosses saying they now have enough stocks.

"Many students of high schools who were going to take entrance examinations for university next year are also lining in the queue to donate blood," Liu Yingge, vice-director of local health bureau told China Daily yesterday.

Liaoyuan Red Cross and Charity Association revealed that the generous amounts of money and goods, such as medicine and rice, were donated from all walks of life in the past two days.

Meanwhile, it has emerged how a 35-year-old nurse at the hospital saved the lives of some patients during the fire.

Lin Haixia was one of 11 doctors and nurses injured in the blaze.

Guo Xiaoguang, who was one of the patients saved by Lin, said: "We were all desperate when the fire broke out and corridors filled with heavy smoke. We thought we were definitely going to die and some even wanted to jump out of the window.

"She said 'Don't jump, I beg you don't jump, please. You will die if you jump'."

With thick, black smoke beginning to pour into the ward at the hospital, Lin told them to keep calm before giving the advice that would save their lives.

She ordered Guo and other patients to pour water on to cotton-wadded quilts, which they used to cover the door to their ward. They then used cullets of glass to cut bed sheets into strips to make ropes.

"Lin asked us to climb from the window first; she held the rope herself and three people climbed down along the rope quickly," Guo said.

"There were only three people left in the room Lin, my mother and me," Guo said.

Lin helped Guo and his mother leave the room through the window, with the support of firefighters who had since arrived.

Seconds after Lin herself managed to escape, the roof of the room collapsed, Guo said in tears.

Lin said she was still coming to terms with the horror of the blaze.

"I don't dare to close my eyes. When my eyes close I can just see blazing flames leaping out at me," she said from her hospital bed.

(China Daily 12/20/2005 page3)