Qualla: 2021 Kaohsiung Building Fire

2021 Kaohsiung Building Fire: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Locals called it Kaohsiung's Number One Ghost Building. The Cheng Chung Cheng tower had been dying for years before it caught fire. Built around 1981 as a gleaming commercial complex with a cinema, restaurants, and karaoke lounges, the thirteen-story building in Yancheng District had become a hollowed-out shell by 2021. Its lower five floors stood abandoned. The underground levels were sealed off. Fire extinguishers had only been installed the month before, three per floor, because the building's fragmented ownership could not afford more. About 120 households remained on the seventh through eleventh floors, most of them elderly residents living alone in tiny apartments, many suffering from physical ailments or dementia.

2021 Kaohsiung Building Fire: Before Dawn

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At approximately 2:45 a.m. on October 14, 2021, a fire broke out at a tea shop on the ground floor. One survivor opened her door and saw nothing but black smoke. Others heard a loud bang, like an explosion, before the flames became visible. The lower floors had high ceilings and ...

2021 Kaohsiung Building Fire: A Building That Warned and Was Ignored

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Cheng Chung Cheng tower had caught fire once before, in 1999, during daylight hours. Firefighters rescued twenty-eight trapped people that time, and nobody died. The warning went unheeded. By 2014, urban explorers documented burst sewer pipes on upper floors and squatters occ...

2021 Kaohsiung Building Fire: Reckoning

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

President Tsai Ing-wen visited the site on October 16 and pledged fire safety reforms and urban renewal funding. Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai announced the city would cover medical fees for the injured and provide housing assistance for displaced residents. The fire chief and the...

2021 Kaohsiung Building Fire: From Ghost Building to Memorial Park

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Civil engineers and architects inspected the burnt shell in November 2021 and declared it structurally unsound. They recommended demolition. The city proposed replacing the tower with a public park and memorial, but the complex ownership structure required buying out hundreds of ...