46 Killed in Fire in Taiwan
NEW DELHI, Oct14: At least 46 people were killed and about 80 others injured in a devastating fire in a multi-storeyed residential building in Kaohsiung city in southern Taiwan on Thursday.
The local fire officials said the 13-story building caught fire around 3 am Thursday. A fire department statement said the blaze was “extremely fierce” and destroyed many floors. At least 11 bodies were sent straight to the morgue, Fire Chief Li Ching-hsiu told reporters at the scene. Another 14 people who showed no signs of life were among 55 taken to the hospital. In Taiwan, official confirmation of a death can only be made in the hospital.
Li said the death toll could rise further as firefighters conducted search and rescue efforts into the afternoon. Video shown on Taiwanese television showed orange flames and smoke billowing out of the lower floors of the building as firefighters sprayed water at it from the street. After daybreak, they could be seen spraying water into the middle floors of the still smoldering building from elevated platforms.
The cause of the fire was unclear, but firefighters noted the flames burned most intensely where a lot of clutter had been piled up, the fire department statement said. Eyewitnesses told Taiwan media that they heard an explosion around 3 am.
The building is about 40 years old with shops on the lower levels and apartments above. The lower floors were completely blackened.
(Manas Dasgupta)
