A woman was yesterday detained and a man released on bail as prosecutors investigate the cause of a building fire in Kaohsiung that claimed 46 lives and injured dozens on Thursday.
The fire in the Cheng Chung Cheng (城中城) building in Yancheng District (鹽埕) in the early hours of Thursday morning is the second-deadliest building fire in Taiwan, after a February 1995 blaze at Weierkang Club in Taichung killed 64 people.
At least 46 residents of the building in Kaohsiung, most of whom were elderly, died in the blaze, the latest tally showed.
Photo: Reuters
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement that a man surnamed Kuo (郭), in his 50s, and his 51-year-old girlfriend, surnamed Huang (黃), “are suspected of being involved in the fire” after investigators collected evidence onsite, examined security footage and obtained witness accounts.
The couple denied setting the fire on purpose, and Huang, following questioning by prosecutors, was detained, while Kuo was released on NT$60,000 (US$2,141) bail.
A source involved in the probe said that evidence so far suggests that the fire started in a small room at the back of a shop selling teaware on the building’s ground floor.
Kuo and Huang often used the small room, where, Kuo, Huang and another man gathered to drink alcohol on Wednesday evening, the source said.
Kuo later left the shop, possibly after a quarrel with Huang, followed shortly thereafter by the other man, the source said, adding that Huang was the last person to leave the shop and shortly after her departure the fire started.
Investigators found burnt-out incense burner and a tin can in the room, but it remains unclear if the objects are connected to the cause of the fire, the source said.
The Kaohsiung City Government said the building had been required to follow fire codes and submit to inspections, but inspectors had not been able to access the premises because the doors were locked and they were unable to coordinate visits with the property’s owners.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said that he had ordered the deputy mayor to set up an independent team to investigate whether negligence contributed to the blaze.
Of the dead, 21 have still not been identified, Chen said.
Experts hoped to use fingerprint analysis to determine who 19 of the victims were, but for two they would have to rely on other methods, he added.
Families of victims had a Taoist priest chant a prayer at the site for those who died.
According to neighborhood residents, the building was home to many poor, elderly and disabled people, and many appear to have been trapped in their apartments during the blaze.
A man surnamed Lee (李), 61, who lives across the street, said a friend who used a wheelchair died in the fire.
“The people who lived inside, many of them were not in good health. Many of them had a disability,” Lee said, adding that the inexpensive rent was the main reason people lived there in less than ideal conditions.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Vice President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday pledged to donate one month of their salaries to the Kaohsiung Bureau of Social Affairs’ special disaster relief account.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) also pledged to donate one month’s salary to the account.
Among the politicians pledging to donate to the fund were New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), Chiayi County Commissioner Weng Chang-liang (翁章梁) and Chen, who said that he and 41 city officials would donate one month’s salary to the account.
The Ministry of Finance yesterday, on behalf of all state-owned businesses, said it would donate NT$22.5 million to the account.
Additional reporting by Wu Chi-lun and Hung Chen-hung
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
RSS