Three top officials of an underwear company were detained on Saturday over a fire that killed 13 women workers.

Another woman was seriously injured in the fire in Shantou, in southern Guangdong Province.

All the windows on the top three stories of the private factory had been covered with iron bars and the only emergency exit was locked, firemen said.

The fire started on the first floor of the Chuanghui Knitting Co Ltd about 12:30pm on Friday.

A female worker identified as Yang was entering the factory gate when she saw smoke in a workshop on the first floor, the Yangcheng Evening News said.

Yang tried to go upstairs to warn workers on the third and fourth floors but was stopped at the stairway by heavy smoke, the report said.

The fire spread quickly through the fourth floor.

Firemen pulled six women out of the burning building and found the bodies of 10 others.

Three of the rescued died in hospital.

The blaze was doused more than two hours later.

The factory had never undergone fire-safety checks, local authorities said.

The company had never educated its employees on firefighting, rescuers said.

Firemen found fire extinguishers in the corridors were destroyed in the fire.

None of the extinguishers was opened, media reported.

The rescue work was also delayed because main roads were destroyed during the recent Typhoon Chanchu that hit Shantou.

The Gurao Town factory, with more than 70 employees, mainly produces bras.

According to Yang, the factory was in such a hurry to meet quotas that workers didn't stop working overtime on Wednesday when Chanchu made landfall in Shantou.

The town has more than 460 registered underwear factories and another 360 unlicensed ones, employing nearly 100,000 workers.

Most factories are small family businesses.

The factories produced about one-third of the town's economy last year.

Editor: Yan