Hundreds of people were left with severe burns after an explosion of colored powder that set off a fire during the “Color Play Asia” party at the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) water park in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里), and scores remain in critical condition. It was a grim lesson in how a disregard for public safety can have devastating results.
The exact reason for the high-density cornstarch explosion is still unknown, with some suggesting that smoking, a short circuit or heat produced by lighting or sound equipment ignited the substance. However, what is clear is that those involved in organizing the event had no regard for safety.
Color Play (玩色創意) head organizer Lu Chung-chi (呂忠吉) said, after being questioned by prosecutors on Sunday night, that the event staff were not informed that the powder was flammable. Apparently there were not any “no smoking” signs around the stage and cigarette butts were everywhere.
Considering Lu is said to understand that an activity creating dust is a combustible dust explosion hazard and that cornstarch is a potential fire hazard, the gross negligence he showed is appalling.
Amid safety concerns about events where colored powder is sprayed about, which Lu introduced in Taiwan in 2013 and that have grown increasingly popular, he had said on several occasions that the reason Color Play uses cornstarch, as opposed to other materials, is that fine corn flour is safe and harmless to the environment.
Lu also posted a statement on the company’s Web site to alleviate fears, saying that the coloring it adds to the cornstarch is edible and thus unlikely to cause explosions, and that cornstarch would be unlikely to cause explosions unless a very high density of the powder is exposed to extreme heat in a confined space.
The calamity might have been avoided had Lu warned staff that spraying large amounts of the powder in close proximity to electrical sources is dangerous, and if smoking had been banned to prevent a possible dust explosion. He should also have acknowledged that selling about 4,000 tickets for an event which could only accommodate 600 people was a safety risk.
It is a common assumption among Taiwanese that potential problems are unlikely to materialize or, if they do, the consequences are unlikely to be severe enough to merit preventive measures. That is one reason an event like this, which attracted more than 1,000 spectators, or others on a much larger scale, are held without organizers having effective emergency plans.
The chaotic scene of victims waiting hours for ambulances without first aid treatment, the lack of emergency medical resources, such as personnel and equipment, the hospitals’ struggle to cope with the sudden influx of victims and the failure to provide relatives with timely and accurate information on victims have all cast doubt on the nation’s capability to effectively carry out a massive rescue operation.
Yesterday afternoon, about 44 hours after the explosion, a mother, whose 20-year-old daughter is the first casualty, cried out for help because her 12-year-old son, suffering burns to over 80 percent of his body, is still at a hospital that lacks facilities to treat burn patients. Her daughter was finally admitted to a hospital with a burn center nine hours after the explosion after she was turned away by other hospitals. The chaos caused by the carelessness of certain individuals is beyond imagination.
Life is fragile and public safety cannot be assured by empty words.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS