Six rescued from fire at Taichung heritage landmark

Taichung, July 20 (CNA) The six residents of a heritage building in Taichung were rescued after the building caught fire on Sunday evening, but works of art by a local legend were destroyed in the blaze, according to the city's Fire Bureau and a city councilor.

Firefighters responded to a report received at 9:19 p.m. Sunday that a fire had broken out in a building on Taiwan Boulevard in the city's Central District, the Fire Bureau said.

After arriving at the scene, they saw smoke billowing from the third floor of the five-story structure, said Taichung City 3rd Fire Brigade Captain Chan Jen-chieh (詹仁傑).

The firefighters then rescued the two men and four women who lived in the building by accessing its top floor, where the six individuals had gathered to get away from the blaze, Chan said.

The six were later taken to China Medical University Hospital with minor injuries.

The cause of the fire has yet to be determined, according to the Fire Bureau.

Chan said the five-story building was the original site of the once-famous West North Grand Hotel, which ceased operations in the 1990s, and Taichung City Councilor Chiang Chao-kuo (江肇國) said Monday the rescued tenants were all relatives of the hotel's founder.

Master works destroyed

Chiang, who grew up in the city's Central District, told CNA that the heritage building was once seen as one of Taiwan's most prestigious hotels in its day.

The 48-year-old city councilor said he remembered his father's generation hailing the location for its entertainment, as legendary Taiwanese singers such as Teresa Teng (鄧麗君), Fong Fei-fei (鳳飛飛) and Wen Hsia (文夏) all performed there.

Aside from its shows, the hotel's fine-dining Japanese restaurant also put the building on the map, Chiang said.

The building itself was locally identified as a heritage site because it was designed by famed Taichung artist Wang Shui-ho (王水河), Chiang said.

Born in 1925 in Taichung, Wang's artistic talents were recognized in his youth, during Taiwan's Japanese colonial era.

He soon became a multi-disciplined artist, creating a range of works, from paintings to sculptures, and his artistic fame earned him several design jobs in the 1960s, including the design of the West North Grand Hotel, which was completed in 1966.

Wang was involved in both the exterior of the structure and the design of its interior layout, as well as the reliefs and even the hotel's furniture and performance stage, Chiang said, and with the fire, the number of Wang's works have decreased in number.

Chiang said the Taichung Green Museumbrary recently announced a memorial exhibition of Wang, starting Aug. 29, but he was not sure if the hotel will be part of the show.

If not, the beauty of the heritage architecture will only live in the works of late Taiwanese photographer Yu Ru-ji (余如季).