Negligence has been blamed for a fire that killed 39 people, most elderly women, in a bamboo temple in eastern China yesterday.
It was one of two deadly weekend fires that killed 90 people, state media said today.
About 60 older women from nearby villages had regularly assembled at the straw-thatched hut in Wufeng village in eastern Zhejiang province to pray and to burn incense and candles, Shanghai's Oriental Morning Postsaid.
Authorities were also investigating the cause of the other fire, which swept through a crowded shopping mall in the northeastern Jilin city yesterday, killing at least 53 people and injuring 71.
One of China's last major fires, a blaze at a Beijing Internet cafe that killed 25 people in June 2002, sparked public outcry over shoddy safety standards. Similar concerns were expressed after a blaze at a dance hall in the city of Luoyang on December 25th, 2000, which killed 309 disco revellers and construction workers.