Four of a Family of Six Killed in Late-Night Fire at a Building-Materials Store in Yilan's Yuanshan Township
Yilan — A fire tore through a building-materials store on Wenquan Road in Yuanshan Township, Yilan County, late on October 3, killing four members of a family of six, the Central News Agency reported. The blaze was reported at 10:36 p.m. at the roughly 50-year-old, three-story building. Yuanshan lies in western Yilan County, and the store, across from Yuanshan Junior High School, had traded in the neighborhood for many years. The cause remains under investigation.
When firefighters arrived, flames were already bursting from the second floor, and explosions were heard during the operation. The owner, surnamed Yu, escaped on his own, and his mother was rescued conscious and taken to hospital. Yu's wife, surnamed Shih, their two children and his father did not survive; CTV reported that the father was 80 years old. Crews brought the fire under control at 1:12 a.m. on October 4 and extinguished it at 3:14 a.m., then stayed on for overhaul and forensic work at the scene.
The building materials and stock stored inside, much of it flammable, helped the fire spread quickly through the aging structure. The three-story building combined the store with the family's home, and the Yu family lived in the living quarters on the premises; with the fire starting late at night, the household had very little time to react and escape. Fire investigators and police are still working to pin down exactly where and how the blaze started. The weekend-night fire, which claimed four lives in one household, has renewed local attention on fire safety and nighttime escape routes in older buildings that combine homes and businesses.
Yuanshan is one of Yilan County's best-known hot-spring townships, and Wenquan Road — literally Hot Spring Road — runs through an older mixed neighborhood of shops and homes. Three generations lived under this roof: the grandparents, the owner and his wife, and their two children. Roughly two and a half hours elapsed between the late-night alarm and the fire being brought under control in the early hours, with the store's stock fueling the flames and complicating the fight; forensic work began as soon as the blaze was out, to establish how the fire started.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 资料图：台北市政府消防局消防车，玄史生 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0（Wikimedia Commons）
