Apartment Fire in southern Taiwan kills 46 people 

A fire in a residential building in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung has killed 46 people and injured another 41, the government said on Thursday.

Neighborhood residents said the 13-story building was home to many poor, elderly and disabled people and it wasn’t clear how many of the 120 units were occupied.

Witnesses said they heard something that sounded like an explosion when the blaze erupted in the building’s lower floors, which housed a closed movie theater, abandoned restaurants and karaoke clubs.

Tsai Hsiu-Chin, 70, had lived in the building for 15 years. she heard someone screaming fire. She said she took the elevator down, escaping with just the clothing on her back.

“I didn’t bring anything. I just cared about saving my life,” she added.

Across the street, Lin Chie-ying said she was awoken in her home by the sound of ambulances and fire trucks. “I thought our home would burn up too.”

Many of the upper floors appeared not to have been damaged directly. However, the smoke was thick enough to have killed and injured the several dozens living above the fire.

However, 14 of 55 taken initially to the hospital were confirmed dead on arrival or shortly after.

The decades-old apartment building is one of many in the Yancheng district, an older part of Kaohsiung, a city of some 2.8 million people in southwestern Taiwan.

“For the families and Yancheng, I feel incomparable pain and I blame myself deeply,” Mayor Chen Chi Mai said.

“Here I want to express my deepest sorrow to all the wounded and those who died, as well as their families and all the residents.”

It appears the fire broke out on the ground floor but it was not immediately clear exactly where and the cause was still under investigation.

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Kamila/Reuters