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Mandarin Oriental Beijing Suffers Massive Fire

The 40-story Mandarin Oriental Beijing, which was originally scheduled to open just before the Summer Olympics in '08 but had been delayed until this year, was sitting unoccupied (thank goodness) but near complete when it caught fire several hours ago around 9 p.m. in Beijing (8 a.m. EST).

According to CNN:

CNN's Beijing bureau chief Jaime FlorCruz said he was on one side of the hotel, but, "It seems like virtually the whole building is burned." Fire crews are on the scene and appeared to have control of the fire.

CNN correspondent Emily Chang said the fire reached up past the 30th floor, but did not appear to be spreading to any of the nearby buildings.

There were no reports of injuries, and the cause of the fire is not yet known — but it "happened in the final hours of the Chinese lunar new year as people set off fireworks across the city," so the blaze may have been an accident related to fireworks. We'll keep you posted as reports of the damage come in.

[Photo: AP via NYTimes]