Thirteen women were killed and four are fighting for their lives after they were trapped when a fire engulfed a factory in Gurao township early yesterday.

The women worked and lived in the five-story building, which housed an earphone factory and a dormitory which had anti-theft bars on the windows.

It is unknown if the women were asleep when the fire broke out on the ground floor at 7:30 am. The fire quickly destroyed about 202 square meters of the building.

Twenty-eight people were rescued from the blaze. One woman was placed on the ground in front of the building as a man gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

More than 150 firefighters using 13 fire engines responded to the emergency. The flames were extinguished nearly three hours later at 10:05 am.

A crowd gathered outside the building as a clean-up operation was underway yesterday. The outside walls above the first and second floors had been blackened from the intense heat of the fire.

Police have detained Zhang Peixiong, the owner of the building, and are questioning him about the incident.

The four injured women were taken to a local hospital and are all in critical condition, said Li Xisong, a press officer with the city's Chaoyang district, where the township is located.

The cause of the fire is not known and is being investigated by authorities.

"Shantou's Chaoyang, Chaonan and Chenghai districts have lots of small self-employed workshops and they have minimal, if any, fire prevention facilities," said Huang Weidong, an official with the municipal fire brigade of Shantou.

"Many of the workshops have hidden problems ranging from lack of evacuation stairs or fire hydrants, blocked fire escapes and buildings that combine factories and dormitories. It is also popular to install anti-theft bars across windows and balconies," Huang said, adding that many workshop owners had a cavalier attitude towards fire hazards.

"Fire is merciless. They should learn a good lesson from the accident."

There were four fires that killed a total of 22 people including three children in the same township in 2006.