PX Mart Taichung facility fire toll rises to 9 after 5 bodies found

Taichung, Dec. 19 (CNA) The death toll from a fire at an under-construction processing center belonging to supermarket chain PX Mart in Taichung on Thursday rose to nine that evening, after firefighters found five more bodies, according to the local authorities.

The five bodies were found at around 7 p.m. Thursday on the third floor of the new processing center being built by PX Mart subsidiary Sunmake Enterprise Co., after a body was found on the fourth floor less than two hours earlier, according to the Taichung City Fire Bureau.

The three other fatalities were individuals found without no vital signs who were pronounced dead after being taken to two nearby hospitals.

A total of 107 firefighters were dispatched to the site in Taichung's Dadu District after the fire was reported to the authorities at 1:24 p.m., according to the fire bureau.

The two hospitals said they have also been treating eight people who escaped the fire, mostly for heavy smoke inhalation caused by the fire.

An executive surnamed Wu (吳) from the construction company told reporters Thursday evening that he apologized for the deadly incident, adding that the company will take on the responsibility of paying compensation to those injured or killed in the blaze and look after their families.

The fire took place when the company was installing freezers at the processing center, Wu said.

Engineers from the company have been assisting firefighters, and further investigations will determine what caused the fire, according to Wu.

PX Mart said in a statement that no employees of the supermarket chain were at the construction site which is near an existing processing center used to prepare fresh fish and meat supplied to its stores in central and southern Taiwan.

The supermarket chain also responded to earlier media reports about Styrofoam boards scattered on the construction site, saying only fire-resistant materials used to pave the floor and build the ceilings were at the scene.

PX Mart will help the construction company and cooperate with the authorities in their investigations into the deadly fire, it said.

Prosecutors at the district prosecutors office in Taichung were at the site to examine the scene of Thursday's fire, for the office's own investigations to determine liability in potential legal proceedings in the future, one of them said.

PX Mart, the largest supermarket chain in Taiwan, currently has over 1,200 branches around Taiwan, according to the figure mentioned in a sales campaign in early December.

Its existing processing center in Dadu remains the chain's largest since it was opened in November 2011, PXMart President Tony Tsai (蔡篤昌) told a local business news website in May.