A woman and four children died in a fire at a home in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) early yesterday morning, the Taoyuan Fire Department said.
The blaze broke out at about 5am at a three-story residence made of reinforced concrete on Long-an Street, sending heavy flames and thick smoke into the air, the department said.
After receiving a phone call for help from his daughter-in-law, who lived on the third floor, the owner of the house, surnamed Yeh (葉), who lives on the second floor, tried to go upstairs with a fire extinguisher.
Photo courtesy of the Taoyuan Fire Department
However, flames in the stairway were too intense for him to advance, local media quoted him as saying.
After extinguishing the fire, rescue personnel found the woman and the four children hugging each other, their bodies charred, the department said.
They showed no signs of life when they were moved out of the house, it said.
Prosecutors and medical examiners determined that they died of respiratory failure from fire or smoke inhalation and subsequent suffocation.
The victims were identified as Yeh’s 35-year-old daughter-in-law, surnamed Huang (黃), her daughter and son, aged 10 and 9 respectively, and another 10-year-old boy and his nine-year-old sister, who were children of a friend of Huang who were having a sleepover at Huang’s house.
“They were all gone, gone,” said Yeh’s wife, who escaped from the second floor with her husband.
The department said it dispatched 79 firefighters, 27 fire trucks and seven ambulances to the scene after receiving a report of the blaze at 5:31am.
The first crews arrived at 5:40am, and the flames were brought under control at 6:08am and fully extinguished by 6:17am, the fire department said.
The origin of the fire was determined to be in a room on the third floor, it said, adding that the exact cause of the blaze, which burned an about 25m2 area, remains under investigation.
The Association of Victims’ Support’s local chapter in Taoyuan also visited the two families and offered them NT$5,000 each, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office said, adding that the association would also help with accommodation.
Additional reporting by Lee Jung-ping
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