Amid shock and confusion over the fire that broke out late on Saturday at the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) park in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里), footage reportedly taken by a woman who witnessed the incident gives a visceral account of how a techno party turned into a fiery inferno.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily on Saturday night posted footage taken by a woman surnamed Huang (黃), who said she happened to be close to the scene of the fire.
The two-minute-long video showed people attending the “Color Play Asia” party dancing to techno music as a line of congo dancers moved through the crowd.
Photo courtesy of the New Taipei City Fire Department
Moments later, colored powders were sprayed from the stage and quickly covered the revelers and an initial explosion occurred, igniting the powder, the footage showed.
A second, larger explosion followed almost immediately, creating an enormous blaze of light and sending flames across the dance floor, it showed.
People began screaming and running from the dance floor, with many falling and being trampled in the stampede, the footage showed.
A creative marketing team named Simpleinfo (圖文不符) yesterday posted information on Facebook to raise awareness about dust explosions, the purported cause of the fire.
According to the team, dust explosions are chain reactions set off by high-density dust ignited by a spark or other source of heat.
With enough oxygen, a cloud of dust can combust and cause an explosion, the team said.
The initial explosion at the park created a vacuum, which sucked in more dust, triggering a second, more powerful blast, it said.
As smaller dust particles are more likely to combust, some substances are more volatile than others, such as metal powder, flour and dye, the team said.
The chance of dust explosions increase in high-pressure environments, such as basements, where materials that are traditionally viewed as slow-burning, such as some types of wood, or inflammable, such as aluminum, can be volatile in powder form, it added.
Common heat sources that trigger dust explosions include static electricity, friction between dust particles, electric arcs sometimes associated with household appliances, flames and anything that is hot.
The team said people can help to prevent dust explosions by reducing dust, improving ventilation and monitoring heat sources.
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, among the injured were four people from Hong Kong, one from Macau, two Chinese, two Japanese, one Malaysian, one Singaporean, one white male of unknown nationality and one unidentified person.
The four Hong Kongers are: Chan Hiu-yin (陳曉妍), Lee Yee-lam (李宜霖), Chau Wing-shan (周穎珊) and Mok Tsz-ching (莫子青), all female.
The Hong Kong Immigration Department and the New Taipei City Department of Health said five Hong Kongers were injured in the incident, but no name was available for the fifth.
The injured Macanese is Yip Kai-tung (葉紀彤). The two Chinese, also female, are: Chen Lingdan (陳靈丹) and Zhuang Chujun (莊楚君).
The Singaporean was identified as Megan Loy, while the Malaysian woman is Lin Shili (林詩例).
The white male of unknown nationality has been named as Alex Haas, while the person of unknown nationality was only identified as Fouri, but no gender was given.
The names of the two Japanese females were yet to be released.
Additional reporting by CNA
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central