Accusations fly over blame for deaths

Minister of the Interior Chang Pao-ya (張博雅) yesterday severely condemned local rescue services in Chaiyi County and called on them to accept their share of responsibility for the Pachang Creek (八掌溪) tragedy.

At the same time, however, many lawmakers spoke out against Chang, saying that she must shoulder the blame and explain why the government had bungled the rescue of the four workers killed in a flash flood on Saturday.

Chang declined to make a statement, but opposition party lawmakers questioned why she and the deputy minister had not resigned over the affair, rather than allowing two subordinates -- Director-General of the National Fire Administration Chen Hung-yi (陳弘毅) and Director-General of the National Police Administration Ting Yuan-chin (丁原進) -- to step down.

Chang returned from Hawaii on Monday night after concluding an unofficial visit and her deputy, Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋), was blamed for being slow to brief Premier Tang Fei (唐飛) on the incident.

Chang avoided lawmaker's questions but was clearly angry later when facing reporters.

She pointed out that the public should find out why senior Chiayi officials did not appear during the rescue.

"During those two hours, where were commissioner Li Ya-chiao (李雅樵) and Chiayi fire department chief Hsieh Hsin-yung (謝新庸)? Why did the rescue teams not carry all their equipment with them?" Chang said.

"They are on the front line in the government's rescue system and they should take charge of rescue situations at that front line," Chang said.

She said that local administration officials in Chiayi County had not accepted any responsibility themselves but simply sought to shift the blame to the central government instead.

She questioned why the rescue teams did not carry enough equipment, such as dinghies and life-preservers.

The Chiayi County Government, in the meantime, announced that it had punished seven local fire department officials with demerits or reprimands over the incident.

"The chief of the fire department, Hsieh Hsin-yung, did not report this incident to me in a timely manner and also failed to contact other rescue services," said Li.

A major demerit was recorded against the fire chief and also against his deputy, Chiang Kuo-chun (江國鈞).

Chang also asked the local administration to find out why the river had suddenly flooded and why the workers were not made aware of the possibility that the river might rise.

The minister also wanted to know why the workers were not carrying any safety equipment, considering that they were working in a flood plain.

Chiayi prosecutor Yeh Keng-hsu (葉耿旭) has been looking into the tragedy and what went wrong in the coordination between the local fire department and the other agencies that were involved.

Yeh has asked the rescue team to provide the phone log from the day in question, to verify the time that the first call was made.

"We have received information from anonymous sources that the police department received the emergency call before 5:00pm, but fire department officials say that the message wasn't relayed to them by police until after 5:30pm," Yeh said.

"We will find out who is lying," he said.