The Control Yuan on Monday last week censured the Taoyuan City Government over eight fire-related deaths at a factory in the city two years ago.
The April 2018 blaze at Chin-Poon Industrial Co’s factory killed two Thai workers staying in a dorm at the facility and six firefighters who were attempting to rescue them.
Control Yuan members Gau Fehng-shian (高鳳仙) and Chang Jen-hsiang (章仁香) said that their investigation found that the Taoyuan Fire Department committed three serious errors during the rescue effort.
The three fire chiefs at the scene had not properly studied the factory floor plan and had not clarified uncertainties they had about the factory’s layout with company staff, they said.
The department also chose an excessively long route through the fire to reach the trapped workers and delayed by 15 minutes the order for firefighters to retreat, they added.
The firefighters did not know that the factory was comprised of two buildings, which caused them to wander through the burning structure in search of the workers, the Control Yuan members said.
The firefighters twice entered the floor where the dorm was located, but they left without locating the workers, as they were unfamiliar with the building’s layout and were unsure in which building they were trapped, the Control Yuan members said.
The firefighters also did not know that the building had three exits, and were only aware of an exit on the building’s northeast side, they said.
Video footage from the event and a transcript of a discussion between the fire chiefs showed that by 9:42pm it was clear that the blaze was out of control, but the chiefs did not give the order to retreat until 9:57pm, the members said.
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