A man suspected of starting a blaze that killed two people in a residential building in Yunlin County’s Dounan Township (斗南) was arrested early yesterday, hours after the fire broke out.
The 33-year-old suspect, surnamed Tu (杜), is being investigated for murder as firefighters and police seek to determine the exact cause of the fire, police sources said.
Tu was arrested at about 8:40am in Dounan, after the blaze killed a 21-year-old woman surnamed Wu (吳) and a young boy aged 4.
Photo: CNA
Surveillance footage showed Tu leaving the building soon after the fire started at 3am, Yunlin County Police Commissioner Lin Guh-tyng (林故廷) said.
Firefighters later found four tanks of propane at the site, but police were still looking into whether they were used to start the fire, Lin said.
Wu and the child had been living with Tu, his 56-year-old father and a 45-year-old woman surnamed Liu (劉), who escaped the fire, authorities said.
Wu, the child and Tu’s father were rushed to a hospital after experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, they said, adding that Tu’s father was resuscitated.
Lin Wen-shan (林文山), head of the Yunlin County Fire Department, said that Tu’s father and Liu were the parents of the four-year-old child, while Wu was Liu’s daughter from a previous marriage.
The suspect is also from a previous marriage of his father.
Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Li-shan (張麗善), who visited the scene of the fire, said that neighbors had complained of a loud argument that lasted about an hour between Liu and the 33-year-old Tu the night before.
It was not clear if that argument had anything to do with the fire, Chang added.
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