'Sea of flames' engulfs Taiwan building, killing 46

KAOHSIUNG • It was known among locals as the city's "No. 1 ghost building" - a once-prosperous property that began to deteriorate badly after a fire two decades ago.

Squatters and gamblers moved in, piles of debris blocked stairwells.

Early yesterday morning, another fire tore through the 13-storey building in Kaohsiung, Taiwan's southern port city, this time killing at least 46 people and injuring at least 41 others.

The blaze, Taiwan's deadliest in decades, underscored concerns about the island's lax safety standards.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, said the city's fire chief Lee Ching-hsiu, who did not rule out arson.

Surveillance footage from a neighbouring building showed a flash of light on the first floor, and soon the entire floor was engulfed in flames, according to local news reports. Photos and videos circulating online showed dazed and soot-covered residents being escorted out of the charred building, some on stretchers.

Firefighters first received calls for help around 3am yesterday and extinguished the blaze about four hours later.

By the afternoon, they were still looking for survivors in the building which was inhabited by about 120 families. They were mostly low-income and older residents living between the seventh and 11th floors.

"It was a sea of flames," Mr Lin Chuan-fu, 57, a resident who lives near the building, said.

He said a loud explosion woke him up at around 3am. He went out into the street to see what was happening and saw flames moving quickly from the ground floor to the higher floors of the building.

He added that he was worried for some of the older residents living on the higher floors. "They might not have had enough time to get out," he said.

Built in the 1980s, the commercial and residential building near the Love River in central Kaohsiung's Yancheng district, once buzzed with restaurants, karaoke lounges and a movie theatre.

But conditions in the building began to deteriorate after a fire broke out in 1999, according to local reports. While no one was killed in that fire, the lower floors of the building were partly abandoned.

Recent photos and videos showed what appeared to be alarming safety conditions inside the building, including exposed electrical cables, corroded water pipes and heaps of debris obstructing dark stairwells.

Several developers have tried to take over and renovate the building in recent years, according to local news outlet Apple Daily. But the building's residents resisted the efforts.

Mr Lin Chin-rong, the deputy mayor of Kaohsiung, said police and fire officials have inspected the building four times since 2019.

He said an inspection notice had been posted on the building as recently as Tuesday, but that a barrier had prevented fire officials from going to the higher floors.

He added that local fire officials and government construction workers had been in touch with the building's self-appointed representatives in the days before the fire broke out.

"It is very unfortunate that such a bad thing happened before the improvements could be completed," Mr Lin said.

NYTIMES