GUANGZHOU government said it would invest more than 200 million yuan (US$25 million) to renovate the 700-year-old Zhuangyuanfang after an investigation found a number of potential fire risks there.

No person was in charge of firefighting in Zhuangyuanfang, a bustling street full of shops, the Guangzhou Daily said Tuesday.

Zhuangyuanfang, located in Yuexiu District, sees more than 30,000 customers on average each day, most of them schoolchildren. During festivals and holidays, the number can go up to twice as much. The shops, on the other hand, are packed together in a dangerous manner, with 1,300 establishments crammed into an area of 5,000 square meters.

Zhuangyuanfang has a primary street that connects with many smaller passages on either side. Most of the shops are located inside these passages. The longest of these passages is 70 meters in length.

There are five exits from Zhuangyuanfang, but only the Renmin Road exit is convenient for large-scale evacuation of people in case of a fire.

New licenses are still being issued. According to recent statistics, about 100 new shops were set up in Zhuangyuanfang this year.

Guangzhou Vice Mayor Su Zequn said Zhuangyuanfang had to be reconstructed to deal with the fire risks.

Lin Chuguo, chief of the city's firefighting bureau, said the shops in Zhuangyuanfang had been constructed illegally.

"There is no standard space between each other and the evacuation passages are unsatisfactory," he said. "The scale of the street only can be reduced but not enlargeed. No new license is allowed any more before the reconstruction."

He said the volume of customers should be controlled, and all the shops owners should be responsible to ensure their shops are fireproof.

Yu Shuxi, vice director of Guangzhou's safety supervision bureau, said the reconstruction was urgently required.

About 20 instances of fire have occurred in the past two years in the area. The Guangzhou government plans to increase the number of exits and widen the main street.

Earlier Zhuangyuanfang used to be a lane where people sold specialty goods like Guangdong Opera costumes and ornaments. Now the street mainly sells gadgets and clothes to young people.

Editor: Wing