Two Foreign Students Die in Shilin Apartment Fire

Two foreign students are believed to have died in a 4th-floor roof-top apartment in Shilin District this evening after a fire broke out around 7:00pm.

At 8:20pm, firefighters found the bodies of one male and one female.

The apartment owner, who owns the 3rd and 4th floor apartments of the building, said he had rented the residence to two foreign students attending Ming Chuan University.

Police and firefighters are investigating and attempting to clarify the identities of the deceased and the cause of the fire.

The apartment at number 85 Chengde Road Section 4 was described as a rooftop add-on with a metal exterior and wooden interior. The construction was said to have resulted in an intense fire that quickly spread.

According to United Daily News, when firefighters showed up at the scene, the owner of the residence told them there was nobody at home. However, two bodies were found after firefighters extinguished the blaze.

The landlord then went home to retrieve the rental contract to help police identify the deceased. The contract had been signed by the male tenant over one year ago.

Comments on the ETNews Facebook page included criticisms of the practice of building illegal tenements on the rooftops of buildings. “Rooftop add-ons are an abomination.” one reader wrote. Another said, “This is illegal, as long as there’s no solution, the danger will always exist.”

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