Prosecutors yesterday began an investigation into a deadly fire in Tainan which left five members of one family dead after an early-morning blaze broke out in a two-story building in the city’s Sinying District (新營).
After the blaze was put out by firefighters, who responded to the call at about 1:30am yesterday, police and Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office investigators waded through debris to assess the scene and gather evidence.
According to a preliminary assessment released by police and prosecutors, five bodies were found at the site, which was the Chen (陳) family’s residence and truck delivery business office: 55-year-old patriarch Chen Nan-hung (陳南宏) and his wife, Lin Li-chin (林麗琴), as well as their 18-year-old daughter and two sons, aged 22 and 24.
The bodies were taken for autopsies and DNA samples were collected to confirm their identities, prosecutors said, adding that an official cause of death has not been determined.
One body was found just inside the building’s front entrance, an electric roll-up metal door, while the others were found inside other rooms, authorities said.
Apparently, the five were trapped inside, as the blaze had burned out electrical wiring, preventing them from operating the roll-up door, which remained shut, Tainan Fire Department Chief Lee Ming-feng (李明峰) said, adding that metal bars on the building’s windows also prevented the family from escaping.
Relatives said the fire might have been the result of a short-circuited lamp for the family’s ancestral shrine, which, like many Taiwanese families, the Chens had placed in the living room and kept lit continuously.
Lee advised the public to turn off lamps at night and regularly examine lightbulbs and electrical wiring and outlets for signs of wear and damage.
He also recommended that people who live in residences with electric roll-up metal doors install a manual system that can be used to open the door by hand during power outages and emergency situations.
TECH SECTOR: Nvidia Corp also announced its intent to build an overseas headquarters in Taiwan, with Taipei and New Taipei City each attempting to woo the US chipmaker The US-based Super Micro Computer Inc and Taiwan’s Guo Rui on Wednesday announced a joint venture to build a computation center powered only by renewable energy. After meeting with Supermicro founder Charles Liang (梁見後) and Guo Rui chairman Lin Po-wen (林博文), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) instructed a cross-ministry panel to be established to help promote the government’s green energy policies and facilitate efforts to obtain land for the generation of green power, Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said. Cho thanked Liang for his company’s support of the government’s 2019 Action Plan for Welcoming Overseas Taiwanese Businesses to Return to Invest in
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
RSS