A fire that destroyed one of PChome Online’s warehouses in New Taipei City on Tuesday night took more than three hours to extinguish, local firefighters said, adding that there were no casualties or injuries.
The New Taipei City Fire Department said the fire was reported at 7:32pm, and when firefighters arrived at the warehouse in Linkou District (林口), it had already been engulfed in flames that were visible from several kilometers away.
Linkou District fire chief Liao Wu-hui (廖武輝) said the blaze was extremely intense and spread to a neighboring auto parts factory.
Photo: CNA
The fire department said that 231 personnel and 67 vehicles were mobilized, and although they brought the fire under control at 8:30pm, it was not extinguished until 10:41pm.
It said it was still investigating the cause of the blaze.
PChome, one of Taiwan’s largest e-commerce platforms, said in a statement on Tuesday that the items shipped from the warehouse — mostly toilet paper — accounted for only 0.6 percent of its sales and the fire would not have a material effect on its business.
Customers’ orders would not be affected as they would be fulfilled by other warehouses, the company said.
There had been concerns that the fire occurred in the Linkou A7 smart logistics center, as it would have affected PChome’s distribution network, but the statement said that the warehouse that burned down was not there.
Despite the fire, PChome Online shares had risen 2.22 percent to NT$46.00 as of 12:45pm yesterday on the Taipei Exchange.
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