Taiyuan Haosheng International Apartment Fire, Shanxi, China: 14 Dead per Xinhua After Early Report of Five, 38 Taken to Hospital; Cause Under Investigation

What happened

At 4.59 pm on Sunday 8 November 2026, a fire broke out in the Haosheng International Apartment building (豪生国际公寓, which a Spanish-language agency report writes as the Howard Johnson International apartment complex) in Liuxiang subdistrict, Yingze District, Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province in northern China. China Daily, citing local authorities, reports that the fire was put out at about 7 pm, that search and rescue ended at 8.30 pm and that five people died and 38 were taken to hospital.

At about 11 am on 9 November a Xinhua report carried by The Paper, citing relevant Shanxi authorities, said the fire had caused 14 deaths and that the injured were being treated. The cause is under investigation.

What the reports say

• Dead: 14 per Xinhua on 9 November, citing Shanxi authorities. The first local report on the night of 8 November said five.
• Hospitalised: 38 people were taken to hospital in the first report (China Daily), and the Xinhua update gave no new injured figure. On the afternoon of 9 November, Taiyuan authorities quoted by Red Star News (via The Paper) and Reuters said 25 people were still in hospital. At the news conference that afternoon, as China Daily reports it, nine were in critical condition, four were seriously hurt and 12 had minor injuries.
• Address and manager: Red Star News gives the address as 28 Liuxiang South Road and says the property is managed by Taiyuan Anhuaxin Property and Hotel Management Co. We do not say who owns the building.
• The building: The Paper, quoting residents, describes a mixed-use high-rise that houses several training institutions and stands next to a hotel. Reuters headlines call it an apartment building. No outlet we opened gives an official floor count.
• Rescue: an eyewitness quoted by The Paper arrived at about 5.20 pm and saw people calling for help from a platform; firefighters used aerial equipment, and families waited at a provincial hospital that night.
• Response and evacuation: the Taiyuan authorities said 60 people were evacuated or rescued. China Daily reports 243 firefighters from 13 stations with 41 fire engines, who arrived five minutes after the 4.59 pm start, 24 ambulances, more than 100 medical staff and an expert team from the National Health Commission. Taiyuan announced a citywide inspection campaign on workplace and fire safety (Global Times).
• Cause: under investigation. No outlet states a cause; unverified online posts about a point of origin are not used here.

Where reports differ and what we do not know

• The building’s name: Xinhua (as carried by The Paper and United Daily News) and the first local notice give 豪生国际公寓, Haosheng International Apartment in pinyin. One Xinhua-credited Spanish-language agency report, copied by Infobae and Democrata, writes it as the Howard Johnson International apartment complex, and 豪生 is the Chinese name of the Howard Johnson hotel brand. The English form rests on that one agency report, so we use the Chinese name and its pinyin as the main name and show the other beside it. We found no owner, operator or brand statement and do not say who runs the building. The Reuters and AFP copies we opened do not name it.
• The rise from five to 14: the reports do not explain it. It may reflect people found after the first count or deaths in hospital; we do not know, and we do not guess.
• Floors and layout: not officially stated; a claim of a 40-storey tower on social media is unverified. World Journal calls it a mixed-use high-rise built in 2007, with training centres on the lower floors and hotel rooms above. On where the fire began, Knews says preliminary information points to the vacant fifth and sixth floors, while World Journal says witnesses saw it concentrated on the seventh and eighth floors and above; neither is an official finding.
• Safety systems: we found no official statement about alarms, sprinklers, exits or evacuation. Red Star News reports that the property was listed as a red-category fire-hazard unit in 2022, that the Yingze fire brigade found fire equipment not working and hydrant pressure low in 2023 (a fine of 5,000 yuan), and that a worker died in a fall while a lift was being demolished there in March 2026 (a fine of 150,000 yuan). That is one outlet’s account of official records, not a finding about this fire. A property-company staff member told Red Star News by phone that relevant leaders were under investigation; that is an oral claim, not an official announcement. At the 9 November news conference the authorities said management personnel of the building’s owner and of the property management company had been placed under control measures; China Daily and Caixin do not call it detention or arrest, and no number of people, charge or cause was given.
• Independence of sources: the 14 figure comes from Xinhua and the Taiyuan press conference, and is also carried by Reuters, China Daily and Global Times, which all rest on the same official briefing.

What this case teaches

A fire in a building that mixes homes, training centres and a hotel catches many people who do not know the stairs. The lessons from the Hong Kong Wang Fuk Court fire apply: fire doors, alarms, sprinklers and clear stairs. See also our guide to high-rise fire safety.