Three young siblings die in house fire in central Taiwan

台灣中部房屋失火 姊弟三人身亡

All windows in the three children's rooms were sealed with iron bars


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Three young siblings who were junior high school and elementary school students died in a house fire in Miaoli County on Saturday (Dec. 3).

A fire broke out in a three-story house in Tongluo Township around 1 p.m., with thick smoke billowing from the second and third floors of the house, CNA reported. When Miaoli County firefighters arrived at the fire scene, the owner of the house, surnamed Liu (劉), told them that he was taking a nap in a room on the third floor, when he was woken up by thick smoke. Liu said he rushed out of the house immediately, but his three grandchildren were trapped in the house.

After the fire was brought under control, the search and rescue personnel went into the house and found a 15-year-old girl, a 10-year-old girl, and a 12-year-old boy, all siblings.

When they were rescued, all three showed OHCA (out-of-hospital cardiac arrest), and were declared dead after being sent to the hospital for emergency treatment.

The fire went unreported until after the neighbors noticed thick smoke rising from the upper floors of Liu's house, according to CNA.

The neighbors lamented that the three children were well-behaved and polite. When they saw the elderly, they would take the initiative to call "Granny" and say "Hi".

Su Chih-yuan (蘇智遠), deputy head of the first brigade of the Miaoli County Fire Bureau, said that most of the rooms on the second and third floors of the house are made of wooden partitions. Due to the blaze on the second floor, it is suspected that the fire spread from the second floor, but the exact cause of the fire is still to be determined by further fire scene investigation.

The owner's room was located closer to the stairs, and he quickly escaped from the stairs on the third floor after being woken up by the smoke. The children’s rooms were on the front side of the house and all the windows in their rooms were sealed with iron bars, Su said.