A suspected attempted arson yesterday at Taipei City Hall caused minimal damage as a sprinkler system kicked in immediately.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said he felt the building’s current security measures were sufficient, despite the ground-floor blaze.
Boxes of papers in the corner cubicle of Horng Der-haur (洪德豪), section head for user permits in the Construction Management Office — were set alight, blackening adjacent walls and cabinets.
Xinyi Precinct Deputy Police Chief Tu Kuo-ching (涂國卿) said that surveillance footage showed the fire was set by someone who used a rock to break a ground-floor window.
The suspect then splashed an unidentified liquid through the window and set the fire, he said.
Because of dim lighting, it was hard to make out the suspect’s features or the tool used to set the blaze, Tu said.
Surveillance footage from other cameras would be reviewed to try and trace the suspect’s path to and from the building, Tu said, while a seven-liter bucket that contained the fluid left behind by the suspect was being examined.
Taipei City Government spokesman Sydney Lin (林鶴明) said a review would be conducted of safety measures around Taipei City Hall and Ko’s residence.
The smell of smoke permeated the section when it opened, with soaked official documents laid out to dry throughout the office.
“There is no way that safety can be completely guaranteed 100 percent, but at least sprinklers kicked in as soon as the fire was set, which shows the current system is safe overall,” Ko said when reporters asked whether there was a “hole” in security measures.
While he had reduced the mayoral personal security detail after taking office, security guards for Taipei City Hall were not affected.
Automatic sprinklers prevented the flames from spreading beyond Horng’s cubicle.
There was no way to “guess” whether the incident was motivated by the city’s demolition of illegal construction projects, Ko said, adding that Taipei City Police would issue a full report once they had made an arrest.
Horng said that while some of the office computers had suffered water damage, his section’s work was basically unaffected, with no major property damage or destruction of official documents.
He said he did not know why his cubicle had been targeted, given that his section has not handled any controversial cases recently.
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