One firefighter died after inhaling toxic fumes while battling the fire at the Mandarin Oriental's nearly finished flagship hotel inside the CCTV complex in February last year, while a further six were injured.

Zhao Huayong, who stepped down as head of the station in May, will receive an "administrative demotion along with a severe warning" from the ruling Communist Party of China, the Xinhua news agency said, citing a government statement.

The release said a further 44 suspects will be prosecuted while 27 will be disciplined, according to Xinhua.

The 159-metre (524-foot) tall hotel was just 200 metres from the futuristic CCTV tower that had quickly won fame as one of Beijing's most stunning buildings and a striking symbol of China's new-found global power.

Both buildings were designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas' Office of Metropolitan Architecture and due to open this year.

In a public relations disaster for CCTV, which is one of the Communist Party's chief propaganda arms, authorities said the station defied police warnings and set off powerful fireworks in the complex.

Fireworks had erupted right across Beijing to celebrate the Lantern Festival that marks the official end of the Lunar New Year celebrations.

Letting off fireworks on Lunar New Year's Eve, which fell on January 25 last year, and throughout the festive period is a long-held Chinese tradition based on the belief that the noise will ward off evil spirits and ghosts.

But it is also a notoriously dangerous practice and was banned in Beijing between 1994 and 2005.

The ban was lifted due to popular demand, following similar moves in 200 Chinese cities a year earlier.

The CCTV complex, built at a cost of five billion yuan (710 million dollars), was among many ambitious developments to rise ahead of last year's Beijing Olympics.

The cabinet -- known as the State Council -- also announced the prosecutions of people implicated in two other major work safety accidents last year, the agency reported.

Six people are to be charged following a fatal gas blast, also last February, that killed 78 miners and injured 114 in Shanxi province.

A further 35 have received party and administrative disciplinary measures.

A colliery gas explosion at Tonghua Coal Mine in Chongqing, southwest China, last May left 30 people dead and 79 injured.

Of the 39 held responsible, eight have been arrested and 31 have been disciplined, Xinhua said.

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