Compensation is well underway for the five victims killed at the hotel fire that occurred last Saturday evening in Yanji City, northeast China's Jilin Province, local authorities said on Thursday.

The blaze, which broke out at around 7:40 p.m. on March 18 at the Xinqiao Hotel in Yanji, a city in the Korean Autonomous Prefecture of Yanbian, claimed five lives and injured another two.

The victims included a Russian guest, three employees of a Chinese power company in Jilin Province and a man who worked in Beijing.

According to Sui Qingjiang, an official with the prefecture, families of each of the three victims from the power company will get 210,000 to 220,000 yuan (US$25,893 to 27,127) in compensation.

Meanwhile, wife of the Russian guest killed in the fire arrived at Yanji city Wednesday night, together with a lawyer from Russia, the official said.

Negotiation on the Russian victim's compensation is proceeding well between the Russian lawyer and the local government, the official added.

Cause of the hotel fire has been basically ascertained. Earlier report said kindling from a neon light billboard and a car near the hotel amid heavy winds ignited inflammable decorative materials inside the hotel leading to the disaster.

(Xinhua News Agency March 23, 2006)