Three gas company workers were released on bail yesterday after being questioned over the Aug. 15 gas explosion in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) that killed two people and injured more than a dozen others.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office summoned the three Shin Shin Natural Gas Co technicians, identified by their surnames of Tsai (蔡), Chen (陳) and Yeh (葉), and later ordered their release on bail in relation to offenses against public safety and negligence.
INSPECTORS, TECHNICIAN
Tsai and Chen are inspectors who entered the high-rise building a day before the fatal explosion in response to calls from residents about a strong smell of gas.
They were released on NT$300,000 bail each.
The bail for Yeh, who is in charge of regular maintenance and repairs, was set at NT$200,000.
Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Huang Mo-hsin (黃謀信) said that to ease public concerns about safety, the office has published facts about the case based on what he called “objective on-site examinations.”
CORROSION SPOTTED
Huang said that tests on pipes in an apartment on the third floor of the building — where a 59-year-old woman and her 16-month-old grandson were killed — showed no leaks, although an outer pipe on the balcony showed signs of leakage and corrosion.
He said that although the gas stove in the kitchen of the apartment was turned on, it has a safety device that automatically shuts off the gas supply and “therefore has no possibility of leakage.”
Huang said that prosecutors are to continue investigating to determine who was responsible.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai