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Witnesses of a fatal blaze at a Wenling shoe factory said firefighters were prevented from getting to the scene sooner because "selfish drivers" refused to make way on the clogged roads.

Sixteen people died and 17 were sent to the hospital on Tuesday when flames swept through the Taizhou Dadong Shoes Co building in Yangjiawei, a village about 10 km from the city center.

The fire broke out about 3 pm in a first-floor storage area and took emergency crews three hours to extinguish, Wenling city government spokesman Li Haibing said at a news conference on Wednesday. More than 20 workers were rescued.

Villagers said more lives could have been saved had motorists not blocked emergency vehicles from reaching the factory.

"Rescue services responded quickly to our calls, but there was a traffic jam, and the fire trucks could not get through," said Liang Dalong, who lives nearby.

The three-story factory is connected to a main intersection by a 1.75-km stretch of road that is only wide enough for two vehicles, he said.

"We could hear the sirens blaring from a distance, but cars wouldn't make way," he said. "Firefighters were shouting, we were shouting too, but no one listened.

"If it weren't for selfish drivers, more lives could have been saved."

Taxi driver Chen Linjuan was taking a passenger to a nearby village and recalled seeing heavy smoke when she was about 3 km from Yangjiawei.

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