A temporary worker whose discarded cigarette butt sparked a fire at a Carrefour warehouse in Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅), causing NT$3.9 billion (US$121 million) in damage, has been sentenced to six months in prison.
Security camera footage showed the man, surnamed Hsu (許), smoking at 6:58am and 7:07am near stacks of pallets at the Carrefour Yangmei Logistics and Distribution Center on March 14 last year, the Taoyuan District Court said in its ruling on Tuesday.
The footage showed that a pallet caught fire at 7:16am before spreading and destroying 12,000m2 of the 70,000m2 warehouse, including a solar photovoltaic system.
Photo copied by Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
A subsequent investigation by the Taoyuan Fire Department found that the fire had not been caused by flammable materials or electrical equipment at the facility. Hsu, 23, was identified as a suspect based on the footage showing him near where the fire was found to have started.
Although Hsu maintained throughout the trial that he had properly put out his cigarettes, the court said that he was the only one present near the fire’s suspected origin, while other workers were later seen rushing to extinguish the blaze, which was sufficient evidence to prove his guilt.
The court found Hsu guilty of negligence for setting fire to an occupied structure under Article 173 of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to six months in prison, which is commutable to a fine of NT$1,000 per day.
The ruling can be appealed.
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