A fire gutted a landmark hall at one of Taipei's best-known temples, and the city has promised to help rebuild — bad news for a 60-year-old religious site, but no one was hurt.

• Fire tore through Lingxiao Hall at Chih-Nan Temple in Taipei's Wenshan District late Monday night, burning for over three hours.
• The blaze destroyed the first floor and damaged part of the second, wrecking several revered statues.
• Mayor Chiang Wan-an promised a cross-agency task force to coordinate restoration and cut through red tape.
• Wooden structures, incense and joss paper helped the flames spread fast, while the mountainside location, narrow roads and scarce water slowed firefighters.
• The rest of the temple, which dates back to the 1890s, stays open while the damaged hall is sealed off.

Outlook: Investigators will decide what can be saved and what must come down, with temple officials drawing up restoration plans in the coming days.