Taiwanese couple arrested in fatal fire

CHIAYI, Taiwan — Taiwanese prosecutors said Monday that a couple were suspected of setting a fire and negligent homicide after 46 people were killed and dozens of others injured last week in the island’s deadliest building blaze in more than two decades.

The prosecutors accused the 51-year-old woman, who was identified only by her surname, Huang, of failing to extinguish an incense coil when she left the 13-story mixed-use building in the southern port city of Kaohsiung early Thursday. The 52-year-old man, surnamed Kuo, was accused of failing to remind Huang to put out the incense.

The unattended coil, which was in her room on the building’s first floor, sparked a blaze that quickly engulfed the higher floors, making it difficult for the residents — mostly poorer and older people who were asleep — to escape.

Authorities zeroed in on the couple, who are partners, on Friday. Huang was detained after being interrogated, while Kuo was freed on about $2,000 bail, prosecutors in Kaohsiung said. The two have not yet been formally charged.

The fire has raised concerns about lax safety standards in the island’s aging structures and highlighted the lack of support for poor and older people who are desperate for housing and often have no choice but to live in dilapidated buildings.

Among residents, the building that burned had become known as a “ghost building.” It was inhabited by squatters, gamblers, prostitutes and older and poorer people. The average age of those killed in the fire was 62.