Three children on Sunday died in a fire in a Taichung apartment building, which also injured two adults, the city’s fire bureau said.
The blaze started in a room in an apartment on the second floor of the two-story building, which also includes a rooftop structure, the Taichung Fire Bureau said, adding that it received reports of the fire at 11:07pm.
Firefighters managed to put out the blaze in about 20 minutes, but when they entered the building, they found three children lying in a stairway between the second floor and the roof, the bureau said.
When attempts to resuscitate the children — two five-year-olds and a three-year-old — failed, they were rushed to a hospital, the bureau said.
A 58-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman, who is the mother of the five-year-old boy and three-year-old girl, were also injured, but the injuries were not life-threatening, it said.
The woman told firefighters that she was unable to rescue her children or the other five-year old, who was her friend’s daughter, when they were trapped in the fire.
The first floor of the building housed a hair salon, while the second floor and rooftop structure contained seven rooms separated by wooden partitions, which were used by the salon’s employees as a dormitory and rented to other tenants by the owner, who operated the salon, police said.
The fire engulfed an area of about 30m2 on the second floor and caused about NT$100,000 of damage, the fire bureau said.
An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the blaze, police said.
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