A major fire tore through the main hall of Taipei's Zhinan Temple, destroying more than a dozen deity statues and leaving one of the city's best-known Taoist landmarks badly damaged.

• The blaze broke out Monday night in the Lingxiao Hall in Taipei's Wenshan District, burning large parts of the interior black.
• The worst damage was on the ground floor, where wooden and bronze statues of major Taoist deities were destroyed.
• Even the stone lions at the entrance cracked from the heat, and firefighters kept spraying water the next day to stop the fire restarting.
• The temple is staying open — only the burned hall is closed off, and worshippers can still visit the other buildings.
• Temple leaders plan to restore statues that can be saved and recast the rest, then hold a ceremony to reinstall them.

Outlook: The cause is still under investigation, and the temple is asking for public donations to fund a rebuild whose cost and timeline are not yet clear.