The death toll in yesterday afternoon's hospital fire in Liaoyuan City of northeast China's Jilin Province has risen to 33, according to a provincial government official.

Rescuers have found the remains of 19 people at the scene of the fire. And 14 others died in failed emergency treatment after they were transferred to other hospitals, the official said.

All the victims were in-patients of the City Central Hospital, where the fire broke out at about 4:30 Thursday afternoon (previously reported as 5:00).

Rescuers are still conducting searching operations through broken window glass pieces at the scene.

Initial investigation showed the fire started from the power distribution room, and further investigation is underway.

The hospital registered a total of 245 in-patients before the fire broke out, and 152 have been rescued and transferred to other hospitals in the city and in the nearby county of Tongliao, sources with the hospital said.

Some of the people in the hospital had run away by themselves, said one rescuer.

Witnesses said the fire occurred at four four-storied buildings, which are conjoined to form a square, in the largest hospital of Liaoyuan city, about 120 km southwest of Changchun, capital of Jilin Province.

The first and second floor of the buildings are outpatient department, and the third and fourth floor are in-patient department.

"I saw people jumping out of the window and many of them got injured. I'm sorry I could not anything to help," one

witness told Xinhua.

"It's so horrible to see so many people died in an instance," said another witness.

Wang Mingwen, a 43-year-old in-patient, is lucky. Wang and his wife Ni Shuping were in a ward on the third floor when they heard people crying there was fire.

"I immediately took the quilt in my bed, tied it to the heating pipe at one end and threw the other end out of the winder. Then I hurried my woman to descend with the quilt-turned rope, but she fell down to the ground from the second floor and was injured seriously," said Wang.

The man went down safely.

Thousands of residents nearby witnessed the mishap. Many of them who were anxious but unable to do anything to help were still in tears, watching rescuers busy in search operations at the scene.

They said the hospital is one of those in the province that are equipped with the best medical apparatus.

"It's a great pity to see it was burnt in a while," said one of them.

More than 10 fire engines and ambulances rushed to the scene for rescue, and fire engines from nearby cities of

Changchun and Siping and Yitong County were also employed.

The fire was put out at 10:00 Thursday night. Some 5,000 square meters in the buildings have been burnt.

In a room opposite to the hospital, tens of people whose relatives are missing in the fire are registered with rescuers with the names of their relatives and their own telephone numbers.

Top leaders of the province have rushed to the scene to oversee rescue operations, and the provincial health department has dispatched three medical teams to Liaoyuan for help.

Earlier Thursday, the Ministry of Public Security said that from January to November, a total of 222,000 fires were reported in China, which left 2,048 people dead and 2,080 others injured, with direct economic losses of 1.23 billion yuan (152 million US dollars).

However, the figures represented a drop of 5.4 percent, 11.3 percent, 26 percent and 10.2 percent respectively, from the same period last year.