Taichung prosecutors on Friday indicted a landlord and tenant who they say are responsible for a apartment complex fire that killed six people and injured six others on March 6.
Prosecutors charged the tenant, surnamed Cheng (鄭), with homicide and offenses related to endangering public safety for deliberately setting the building ablaze, and the landlord, surnamed Chuang (莊), with offenses related to endangering public safety and causing deaths by obstructing fire escape routes in the building with flammable items.
Cheng had previously told police that he had set a pile of recycled items on fire in a communal area of the building near an elevator.
He said that he started the fire because Chuang was allegedly attempting to evict him for keeping a pet goat and owing NT$6,000 in rent.
The prosecutors’ indictment said that since moving into his rental unit, which was a rooftop add-on to the original building, Cheng had upset Chuang by vandalizing door locks and leaving hot water running.
Other tenants had hygiene issues with Cheng’s pet goat, it said.
The indictment against Chuang said that she had a history of hoarding and building management negligence.
Her nine-floor apartment building, including Cheng’s add-on, consisted of 41 segregated units which she rented out at between NT$6,000 and NT$8,000 per month, although she did not rent out the first two floors, it said.
Prosecutors said that she stacked flammable materials in the stairwell between the first and ninth floors, the hallways of the building and on the balconies of several floors.
Prosecutors cited Chuang as saying that the items stored throughout the building were for her recycling business.
Over the past two years, Chuang was cited for 35 public offenses related to safety and was charged with endangering public safety late last year, receiving fines totaling NT$201,600, prosecutors said.
Tenants said that the hallways of the building were so packed with items that only one person was able to pass them at a time.
The Taichung Fire Bureau said that during the fire, the piles of flammable debris hindered rescue efforts and contributed to residents being unable to escape the building.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,912) for advertisements that exceed its approved business scope, requiring the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license may be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter enforcement of Chinese e-commerce platforms and measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan in response to US President Donald Trump’s heavy tariffs on China. The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee met today to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,900) for advertisements that exceeded its approved business scope and ordered the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license would be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter supervision of Chinese e-commerce platforms and more stringent measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan as US President Donald Trump’s administration cracks down on origin laundering. The legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday met to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report on the matter. Democratic Progressive Party
RSS