Update | Six firemen killed when blazing bowling alley collapses in Taiwan
Firefighters died after part of an illegally built bowling alley collapsed in Taoyuan county
Six firemen were killed today as they fought a blaze that engulfed a bowling alley in northern Taiwan.
The men, all in their 20s, were trapped and killed in a sudden burst of flames which caused the partial collapse of the building in Taoyuan county.
Two of the firemen who died had graduated from Taiwan Police Academy only last year.
The fire broke out in the early hours of the morning when the venue was shut, police said.
About 90 firefighters had been sent to the scene and two workers were rescued uninjured, the Taoyuan fire department said.
“There was a lot of smoke. We decided that our firemen should stop going in and requested our colleagues to pull out, but they did not have time to evacuate during a sudden burst of flames,” said fire department official Shih Shou-yang.
Taoyuan’s mayor Cheng Wen-tsan ordered the operators of the illegal bowling alley to be punished, and called for all illegal structures in the county to be demolished.
Cheng wrote on his Facebook page: “Great sadness. Six firemen unfortunately died in the line of duty.”
The families of each of the firemen that died would receive a consolation payment of NT$19 million (about HK$4.7 million), he said.
Cheng also promised that firefighting equipment and facilities at all fire departments in Taoyuan would be upgraded, and subsidies for firemen would be increased.
Local news media said that the six dead firemen, including the two new graduates, were not experienced enough to have tackled a major fire like this.
They urged the authorities to ensure that such a tragedy never happened again.
Earlier this month, five mainland Chinese firefighters were killed in Harbin, in Heilongjiang province, in a blaze at a warehouse.
The oldest of the firemen was aged 22, while the youngest, aged 18, had completed only one month's training before he died, The Beijing News said.
Inexperience and the high staff turnover had contributed to the deaths of the young firemen, mainland media reported.
