A fire that left four people dead and two others injured at a warehouse in Taichung may have been started by sparks from welding work, the city’s Fire Bureau said after a preliminary investigation Friday.
Sparks from electric welding likely ignited the blaze, the bureau said, but added that the exact cause has yet to be determined pending further investigation.
In response to a report at 7:36 p.m. on Thursday, firefighters were dispatched to the two-story iron-sheet building in Fengyuan District, where they found four people on the second floor with no vital signs.
The fire was extinguished at 8:32 p.m.
Of the six people who managed to escape, three were unhurt, two were injured with one suffering two to three-degree burns over 50 percent of his body, and one was a migrant worker who left the scene before fire fighters arrived, the bureau added.
The men were rushed to three different hospitals for emergency treatment, with the four declared dead after attempts to resuscitate them failed.
The two injured men are currently being treated at Taichung’s China Medical University Hospital and Feng Yuan Hospital, according to the bureau.
The facility was later determined to be a warehouse used by Ya Suh Dar Co., which specializes in the manufacture of industrial fans and ventilation products for animal husbandry applications.
Nine Ya Suh Dar workers had been applying anti-slip paint on the second floor of the building while the migrant worker was welding on the ground floor when a fire suddenly broke out, investigators said.
One of the workers who escaped said the company had been carrying out renovation work for the past two to three days, adding that the building was used as a warehouse to store liquid-cooled ventilation fans.
On Friday, officials from the city government’s Urban Development Bureau said the warehouse is an illegal structure as the area is designated for farming use.
The development bureau said it issued that day an order to the property owner to demolish the warehouse within 14 days or the structure will be razed.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel