A fire broke out in a three-story building in Tainan's Lioujia District (六甲) early this morning, resulting in the deaths of five people who were trapped on the third floor, the city's fire department said.
The fire was extinguished at 5am, and as of 9:06am, firefighters had found five charred bodies.
The department said it received a report of the blaze at 2:36am, and it dispatched 19 vehicles and 37 personnel to put it out.
Photo: Wang Han-ping, Taipei Times
When firefighters arrived on the scene, the third floor of the building was engulfed in flames, and the five people — thought to be members of the same family — were trapped in a corrugated steel extension at the back of the third-floor dwelling.
The fire was brought under control at 4:19am and extinguished at 5am, but temperatures inside the structure were still too high for firefighters to search the premises.
It was not until 7:12am that two charred corpses were found behind the third floor before the others were discovered nearby, the department said, adding that it was still trying to clarify how the incident occurred.
The fire department has initially determined that the five people in the house were a 44-year-old man surnamed Chen (陳), his 39-year-old wife surnamed Wu (吳), two sons aged 15 and 18, and an eight-year-old daughter, but the bodies still have to be identified.
The family has one other daughter who is currently overseas, the department said.
Firefighters said that the fire may have started in an agricultural machinery store on the building's first floor, which they suspect was filled with debris and flammable liquids that likely caused the fire and fueled its quick spread.
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