A 52-year-old woman suspected of starting a fire at a building in Kaohsiung that killed 46 people and injured 41 was charged with homicide yesterday.
Prosecutors asked the court to impose the “heaviest penalty,” with the Criminal Code stipulating the death penalty, a life sentence, or no less than 10 years in prison.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office said that the suspect, Huang Ke-ke (黃格格), at 2am on Oct. 14 last year lit mosquito-repellent incense and placed the burning product on a sofa in a small room on the ground floor of the Cheng Chung Cheng (城中城) building in Yancheng District (鹽埕), starting a fire that spread through the building.
The room in which the fire started was owned by someone else and had no water or electrical outlets, prosecutors said.
Huang often drank with her 53-year-old boyfriend, surnamed Kuo (郭), and others in the room, prosecutors said.
On the night of Oct. 13, Huang and Kuo had been drinking in the room, but three hours before the fire started, Kuo had left the building, they said.
Prosecutors released Kuo after questioning, saying that he played no role in starting the fire, which was confined to the room for almost 30 minutes, producing a lot of smoke and igniting its wooden interior, they said.
Many of the units on the first and second floors were not occupied, and 59 scooters and motorcycles parked on the first floor helped the fire to spread, prosecutors said.
The conditions led to thick smoke rising to the upper levels of the 40-year-old, 13-story building, killing people on the seventh floor and above, the office told the court.
The 46 people who died showed signs of nitric oxide poisoning, which inhibits breathing, and shock, the office said.
In addition to the homicide charges, the indictment document said that Huang committed an offense against public safety.
Prosecutors said that the suspect did not show any remorse during the investigation.
They sought the heaviest punishment after Huang argued with investigators in an ill-mannered way, the office said.
The indictment said that Huang started the fire because she was angry with Kuo, suspecting he had been deliberately avoiding her.
Citing witness accounts, the indictment said that Huang repeatedly called Kuo and texted him on the night before the blaze, but he did not reply.
It said that after the fire started, Huang had returned to her home in Fengshan District (鳳山), where she lived with Kuo, and texted him again, writing: “If you are mad, I will be mad with you” and “I will do what you want to see. This time, I did it.”
While Huang was sending angry messages to her boyfriend, the building was engulfed and people were dying, prosecutors said.
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