Print

Mail

wiki links

Fire breaks out at Sogo's flagship Zhongxiao store

Pacific Sogo Department Store employees and shoppers gather outside Taipei's Zhongxiao E Road branch after a fire broke out yesterday. PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES

Pacific Sogo Department Store (太平洋崇光百貨), which gained some notoriety after allegations of a scandal involving first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) surfaced recently, is back in the spotlight after a fire broke out at one of its stores yesterday.

The flagship branch on Taipei City's Zhongxiao E Road was forced to close its doors at around noon yesterday after smoke was detected on several floors.

Witnesses told cable news channels they saw smoke on the store's fourth and fifth floors, both of which were full of shoppers.

The company said that more than 3,800 customers and members of staff were immediately evacuated.

No one was seriously injured although a mentally impaired employee, who was found hiding in the corner of the staff restaurant, was treated for smoke inhalation at a hospital, company spokesman James Wang-Kuo (汪郭鼎松) said during a phone interview.

A preliminary examination of the store revealed no signs of damage, he said.

The company suspects that an electrical short circuit somewhere between the seventh and ninth floors may have caused the fire, Sogo chairwoman Chung Chin (鐘琴) told reporters yesterday.

The department store will reopen tomorrow, public relations manager Nancy Ting (丁立貞) said.

Wang-Kuo estimated that the day-and-a-half closure would cost Sogo between NT$30 million (US$915,000) and NT$40 million in lost revenue.

One of six stores nationwide, the Zhongxiao branch is Pacific Sogo's cash cow, reporting revenue of NT$16 billion last year, contributing more than half of the company's overall sales of NT$31 billion, company figures showed.
This story has been viewed 1297 times.