A fire that tore through a mixed-use apartment tower in downtown Taiyuan, the capital of China's Shanxi province, has killed at least 14 people and sent dozens more to hospitals, according to state media — and authorities have now placed company officials under detention as investigators try to determine what sparked the blaze.

The fire broke out around 4:59 p.m. local time on Sunday inside the Haosheng International Apartment building in the city's Yingze district, according to the South China Morning Post. Officials said the flames started near the fourth floor of an annex before racing up to the eighth and ninth floors, which house a hotel inside the otherwise residential-and-commercial tower.

State news agency Xinhua reported the death toll at 14, with dozens hospitalized — Arab News cited local authorities putting the hospitalized figure at 25, nine of them in serious condition, while rescuers pulled roughly 60 people from the building before the fire was brought under control about two hours later.

A Building Packed With Uses

The tower wasn't a simple apartment block. Beyond the hotel floors, the building held short-term rental units, small commercial venues and tutoring centers, according to the New Straits Times — the kind of dense, mixed-use layout that fire-safety experts say can complicate both evacuation and firefighting when flames move quickly between floors with very different purposes.

OFFICIALS HAVE CALLED FOR A BROADER CRACKDOWN ON HIGH-RISE FIRE SAFETY

In the days since, authorities have placed officials from the building's property-owning company and its management firm under provisional detention, a step short of formal arrest that is common in Chinese investigations while prosecutors build a case. No charges have been announced, and the precise cause of the fire remains under investigation.

The disaster is the second deadly high-rise fire this year in Taiyuan; a blaze in the city's Xiaodian District in March killed three people and injured 23 others. The repeat incident has prompted local officials to call for a broader crackdown on fire safety in high-rises, along with scrutiny of heating systems and traffic violations.

China has struggled for years with fire-safety lapses in densely packed urban buildings that mix housing, hospitality and commerce under one roof — often a byproduct of landlords subdividing space without updating fire-suppression systems. Sunday's fire is likely to add pressure on provincial regulators already facing scrutiny after a string of similar incidents elsewhere in the country.

Investigators have not said when they expect to determine a cause, and it remains unclear whether the detained officials will face formal charges.