Four people on Wednesday were killed in a fire at a COVID-19 quarantine hotel in Changhua County, including a firefighter who died after their oxygen tank ran out while sheltering in a bathroom in the burning facility, the Changhua Fire Bureau said yesterday.
The fire broke out at 7:52pm on the second floor of the 15-story Chiaoyu Building, the bureau said, adding that the flames spread rapidly and filled the structure with smoke, trapping 31 people.
The former department store, housing the hotel on the seventh to ninth floors, is considered a local landmark.
Photo: Tang Shih-ming, Taipei Times
The bureau scrambled 166 firefighters and 58 trucks, the bureau said.
Heat, thick smoke, darkness and the facility’s complex interiors made the firefighting operation difficult, the bureau said, adding that it took nine hours to put out the blaze.
The last survivor trapped inside the building was evacuated at 3:50am yesterday, the Changhua County Government said, adding that first responders had quickly established a list of people suspected to be inside the building.
Those were 27 people under mandatory quarantine, two staying at the hotel while monitoring their health, as well as two hotel employees, it added.
Hotel owner Tsai Chin-feng (蔡進峰) said that two floors in the building were vacant and used for storing carpets left behind by a former occupant who ran an entertainment business in the building.
The structure was opened in 1993, initially housing a shopping center and a video arcade, but fire hazards reported over the past few years led to many occupants leaving the site.
Tsai said that he had renovated the seventh to ninth floors to run a hotel with 74 rooms, in the past few months housing people under mandatory quarantine.
When the fire alarm rang on Wednesday night, Tsai ordered staff to check every floor and told guests to stay inside their rooms until firefighters arrived, he said.
Leaving the building to get an overview of the situation, Tsai saw smoke coming from the second floor, he said, adding that he helped some guests leave the building via emergency stairs filled with thick smoke.
The Ministry of the Interior said that an investigation has been opened into the fire, adding that one injured firefighter has been transferred from a local hospital’s intensive care unit to a general ward.
National Fire Agency Deputy Director-General Hsiao Huan-chang (蕭煥章) has traveled to Changhua to learn about the incident and give condolences to the dead firefighter’s family, the ministry said.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is Central Epidemic Command Center spokesman, said that people who leave their mandatory quarantine in the case of a fire at a centralized facility would not be fined for doing so.
Additional reporting by Chien Hui-ju
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
LEAP FORWARD: The new tanks are ‘decades more advanced than’ the army’s current fleet and would enable it to compete with China’s tanks, a source said A shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived at the Port of Taipei early yesterday. The vehicles are the first batch of 108 tanks and other items that then-US president Donald Trump announced for Taiwan in 2019. The Ministry of National Defense at the time allocated NT$40.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase. To accommodate the arrival of the tanks, the port suspended the use of all terminals and storage area machinery from 6pm last night until 7am this morning. The tanks are expected to be deployed at the army’s training
RSS