The death toll from a fire at an under-construction processing center belonging to supermarket chain PX Mart in Taichung yesterday rose to nine in the evening, after firefighters found five more bodies, local authorities said.
The five bodies were found at about 7pm on the third floor of the new processing center being built by PX Mart subsidiary Sunmake Enterprise Co, after a body was found on the fourth floor less than two hours earlier, the Taichung Fire Bureau said.
The three other fatalities were found without vital signs and were pronounced dead after being taken to two nearby hospitals.
Photo courtesy of Taichung City Fire Bureau
A total of 107 firefighters were dispatched to the site in Taichung’s Dadu District (大肚) after the fire was reported to the authorities at 1:24pm, the bureau said.
The two hospitals said they have also been treating eight people who escaped the fire, mostly for heavy smoke inhalation.
An executive surnamed Wu (吳) from the construction company told reporters yesterday evening that he apologized for the deadly incident, adding that the company would take on the responsibility of paying compensation to those injured or killed in the blaze and look after their families.
The fire took place when the company was installing freezers at the processing center, Wu said.
Engineers from the company have been assisting firefighters, and further investigations would determine what caused the fire, Wu said.
PX Mart said in a statement that no employees of the supermarket chain were at the construction site, which is near an existing processing center used to prepare fresh fish and meat supplied to its stores in central and southern Taiwan.
The supermarket chain also responded to earlier media reports about Styrofoam boards scattered on the construction site, saying only fire-resistant materials used to pave the floor and build the ceilings were at the scene.
PX Mart would help the construction company and cooperate with the authorities in their investigations into the deadly fire, it said.
Prosecutors at the district prosecutors' office in Taichung were at the site to examine the scene of the fire, for the office’s own investigations to determine liability in potential legal proceedings in the future, one of them said.
PX Mart, the largest supermarket chain in Taiwan, currently has more than 1,200 branches around Taiwan, according to the figure mentioned in a sales campaign early this month.
Its existing processing center in Dadu remains the chain’s largest since it was opened in November 2011, PX Mart president Tony Tsai (蔡篤昌) said in May.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
RSS