NANJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- A firefighter was killed in the chemical warehouse fire that raged from Friday morning until the early hours of Saturday in Jiangsu Province, the provincial fire department confirmed on Saturday.

Zhu Junjun, 26, was from the fire detachment of Jingjiang City. He was caught in the flames after delaying evacuation to continue spraying water on the blaze and to cover other firefighters, according to the department.

The fire, which began around 9:40 a.m. on Friday at a facility owned by Jiangsu Deqiao Storage Co. in Jingjiang, was put out at 1:50 a.m. on Saturday after overnight work by more than 1,000 firefighters.

With chemical storage tanks destroyed and their contents spreading over a wide area, firefighters had difficulty approaching for a while. They curbed the blaze after the valve of an oil pipeline was shut off.

Two fire engines were destroyed in the fire, the department said.