The last two bodies of people killed in the magnitude 6.0 Hualien earthquake on Feb. 6 were recovered yesterday from the rubble of a collapsed building that is being razed, bringing an end to the drawn-out search and recovery effort.
Grandparents Ding Wenchang (丁文昌), 76, and He Fenghua (何鳳華), 75, were part of a five-member Chinese family staying in the Beauty Inn (漂亮生活旅店), a hostel with rooms on the first and third floors of the 12-story Yun Men Tsui Ti (雲門翠堤) building.
Rescuers said the couple’s bodies were found lying on a bed and were sent to a local mortuary after being taken from the rubble.
Photo: CNA
The bodies of the other family members, Yang Jie (楊捷), 39, Ding Shouhui (丁守慧), 40, and their 12-year old son Yang Haoran (楊浩然) were recovered on Feb. 10.
Hualien County Fire Department head Lin Wen-jui (林文瑞) said rescue workers were able to reach the bodies of Ding and He early yesterday after heavy machinery broke through the ceiling of the building’s fourth floor.
Due to the bodies’ decomposition, sanitation workers were called in to spray disinfectants over the site before rescue workers dug through the rubble with their hands and light equipment to retrieve the couple, Lin said.
The bodies had been trapped under a pillar, which had tilted to one side during the quake and search teams had been gradually dismantling over the past two weeks.
Rescue teams in Hualien ended their search and rescue operations on Feb. 11, 106 hours after the earthquake, and began demolition of the building after discovering that they could not reach the bodies of Ding and He because of the tilted pillar and other debris.
The quake killed 17 people and injured 285.
Fourteen of those killed were in the Yun Men Tsui Ti building.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary