Youth Confesses to Setting Taiwan Hotel Fire That Killed 30
Police said Saturday that an 18-year-old youth has confessed to starting Taiwan’s worst hotel fire, in which 30 people were killed last week.
Police told reporters that Cheng Chih-ping, one of six people who were detained for questioning, admitted the crime after he was identified by a taxi driver and a waitress at the Emperor Hotel in Tainan, in southern Taiwan.
The police said Cheng told them Friday night that he and three of his friends, who were still at large, took the taxi and threw a firebomb into a restaurant in the basement of the six-story hotel Monday night.
They quoted Cheng as saying he had a quarrel with the waitress and the owner of the restaurant Sunday because the waitress refused to go out with him.
Most of the 30 victims died of smoke inhalation in their sleep. Damage was estimated at more than $500,000.
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