A 66-year-old resident of Taichung’s Dali District (大里) was on Friday charged with arson and negligent homicide, after he in January caused a fire at his home that led to the death of his wife, children and grandchildren, local prosecutors said.
The man, surnamed Chen (陳), was found outside his home by firefighters arriving at the scene early on Jan. 6. He told them that he had set the fire in the three-story building to scare away a snake, the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Firefighters found Chen’s 62-year-old wife, 38-year-old daughter, 32-year-old son and two grandsons — aged 11 and 6 months old — in the building. All of them showed no vital signs and were pronounced dead at a hospital, the office said.
Photo: CNA
The causes of death were multiple organ failure caused by the heat, lack of oxygen and inhaling toxic gases, it added.
The office said that Chen might have had an acute episode of delirium when he set fire to the house, believing there was a snake.
A hospital assessment concluded that he has a major neurocognitive disorder that manifested over the past two to three years, it said.
Prosecutors said Chen had been mentally unstable for months after he lost part of a leg in a traffic accident, adding that he also has several chronic diseases, including high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney failure.
He was detained right after the fire, they said.
The prosecutors said they filed a motion to have Chen placed in a medical institution, as his impaired capabilities to judge the consequences of his actions might imperil public safety.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS