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
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS