A fire broke out late at night at a sheet-metal factory in New Taipei City's Xinzhuang District, killing one Thai migrant worker and once again sounding the alarm over housing safety for migrant workers.

• A row of three-storey sheet-metal factory buildings on Xinshu Road in Xinzhuang was fully ablaze late at night, and it took several hours to extinguish the flames.
• The first and second floors of the factory were a copper-tube production plant, while the third floor housed foreign migrant workers — a textbook case of the hazard posed by premises that serve as both factory and dormitory.
• Six Thai male migrant workers were living in the dormitory at the time. Five escaped safely, one was trapped, and their body was found on the third floor in the early hours of the morning.
• The fire department deployed 60 vehicles and 125 personnel to the scene. One firefighter sprained their right knee while laying out a hose line and was taken to hospital.

Outlook: The cause of the fire is still under investigation, and the housing safety issue of factories being used illegally as migrant worker dormitories is expected to come under renewed scrutiny.