A dedicated burns center for the treatment of patients injured in a flash fire at the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) park in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里) last month opened at the Banciao District (板橋) branch of New Taipei City Hospital yesterday.
The 627 Burn Projects Management Center, named after the date of the incident, is to provide follow-up treatment for the nearly 500 people injured in the fire based on a “one patient, one project” service model, said Yulon Group, a Taiwanese automaker and importer, which provided the funding for the facility.
The services include reconstructive surgery, rehabilitation, education and employment consultations, counseling, home care and other support services, the group said.
Yulon donated NT$16 million (US$511,000) to establish dedicated burns treatment facilities, such as intensive care wards, water therapy rooms and equipment, anticipating that some patients might need years of follow-up treatment.
The Formosa Fun Coast’s board of directors yesterday set up a foundation to handle donations from its members toward the general relief effort.
Elsewhere, friends and family of one of the people killed in the incident, 19-year-old Liu Chih-wei (劉致葦), held a funeral for him in Hsinchu.
The ceremony included a fashion show that featured designs by Liu, who was a fashion design major at Taipei College of Maritime Technology.
Liu was one of five fatalities in the blast that engulfed hundreds of partygoers at the park on June 27.
The fire erupted when cornstarch ignited in what New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) said was the worst human disaster in the city’s history.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare on Monday said that 398 burns patients were still hospitalized, 265 of them in intensive-care wards.
Of those, 213 were in critical condition, the ministry said.
The park has been closed since the incident.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard