Nine people were killed and 30 injured in an early-morning fire yesterday at the Taipei Hospital in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊).
New Taipei City Fire Department Director Huang Te-ching (黃德清) said he received a report of a fire at 4:36am, from room number 7A23 in the hospice section of the nine-story hospital.
Thick smoke was already pouring from the seventh floor of the building when firefighters arrived, he said.
Photo: Daniel Shih, AFP
Four patients and a foreign worker were in room 7A23 when the fire broke out, he said.
There were a total of 32 patients, two caregivers, one nurse and eight foreign workers on the floor at the time, he said, adding that the fire was put out at 5:27am.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which runs the hospital, said that as of 4pm, a total of 243 firefighters and paramedics had been deployed to the scene and about 300 patients and healthcare workers had been evacuated, including 39 people who were sent to other healthcare facilities for immediate treatment.
Photo: CNA
As of press time last night, nine people were confirmed dead, nine were in intensive care units and one was in an emergency room observation unit, the ministry said.
Nine patients from the seventh floor had been moved to other facilities, and one had been discharged, it said.
The fire department’s preliminary investigation suggests the fire was caused by a short circuit in an electric bed, but the alarm was not raised for nine minutes, Huang said.
Contributing factors to the casualty toll was that the mattresses were flammable and the door to room 7A23 was not closed during the evacuation, he said.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) said the ministry’s preliminary understanding was that a nurse and a caregiver were able to push three of the beds out of room 7A23, but the room was filled with smoke by the time they tried to push the fourth bed out and the bed became stuck in the door.
The patient in the bed had to be physically carried out and the door was left open, Hsueh said.
The ministry has established an emergency response task force to handle the case.
Its main goals are to ensure that the evacuated patients were treated properly, and to cooperate with the fire department to understand what caused the fire and to prevent a similar accident, he said.
He denied that there might have been a shortage of hospital personnel at the time of the fire.
It was unreasonable at this time to criticize hospital personnel for delaying reporting the fire, but if the investigations showed that to be the case, the ministry would boost training for hospital fire emergency responses, he said.
Premier William Lai (賴清德), Hsueh and the hospital’s deputy superintendent, Lin San-chi (林三齊), apologized to patients, their families and the public for the fire.
An order has been issued to upgrade fire prevention measures at hospitals nationwide, Lai said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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