A total of 831 people have been killed in fires in China in the first 10 months this year, down 26 percent year-on-year, according to official figures released yesterday.

　　Another 509 people were also injured in more than 106,000 fires so far this year, said a report from a national conference on fire control in Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan Province.

　　Of the deaths, 578 people, or 69 percent, were killed in residential building fires.

　　The accidents caused property losses of more than 1 billion yuan ($155 million).

　　The overall number of fires, the number of injuries and amount of property losses dropped respectively by 3.8 percent, 15.3 percent and 21.3 percent, according to the figures.