Fire at Chinese shoe factory kills 37

By ANITA CHANG

Associated Press Writer

BEIJING --

A fire at an unlicensed shoe factory killed 37 people and injured more than a dozen, Chinese authorities said Monday, one of the deadliest industrial accidents this year in a country plagued with dangerous workplaces.

The fire started Sunday night in a workshop making shoe uppers, said a woman surnamed Zhou in the information office of the Communist Party committee in Putian, an export manufacturing town in southeastern Fujian province. It was likely caused by an electric wire that caught fire, according to a spokeswoman for the city police.

None of the 56 workers at the factory escaped unhurt.

.... license was revoked in 2004 after officials found it illegally combined work, storage and living areas, Zhou said.