A special compensation team has been tasked to vet insurance claims of up to 1.5 billion yuan for damages caused by a recent fire at China's state broadcaster's new headquarters.

The 30-storey cultural center of the China Central Television (CCTV) headquaters complex was insured for 1.53 billion yuan, and the policy was undertaken by the People's Insurance Group, said China Insurance Regulatory Commission vice-chairman Li Kemu at a press conference on China's insurance industry outlook on Thursday.

Li said the company had set up a special compensation management team to look into the claims, and that work was still in progress.

But he stopped short of disclosing the estimated damages, which remained a mystery to the Chinese public and have fueled speculation, with some estimating the amount would run into billions of yuan.

Police investigations blamed the February 9 fire on an illegal fireworks display, which celebrated the end of the Lunar New Year. The fireworks in question were classified as dangerous explosives, and were prohibited from use without official permit. Seventeen people had been detained for questioning.

The fire claimed one life and consumed the tower built to house the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, a theater, recording studios and a cinema. The building was still under renovation but was due to open in about a month when the fire took place.

Since the fire was considered man-made and attributed to negligence on the part of CCTV management - which had since made a public apology, public opinion that raged in its aftermath was mainly unsympathethic.

When news started circulating that an insurance compensation scheme was under study, some Chinese netizens left angry messages questioning the move on news websites and online forums.

A majority of them asked how a man-made accident could be covered by insurance. "What a joke. CCTV has broken the law and will be compensated? This is puzzling." said a message left on the Chinanews website by a reader from Shanghai.