One woman was killed and 15 people were injured in a gas explosion in Taichung’s Fengjia Commercial District (逢甲商圈) yesterday, with the suspected mishandling of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) cylinder by a restaurant employee thought to be the cause, officials said.
The incident occurred shortly after noon yesterday, with the blast and causing a fire that burned several buildings, causing major damage, as well as destroying a number of parked cars and motorcycles.
Firefighters and police helped evacuate people from the area, with the body of one woman recovered late in the afternoon.
Photo: Liao Hui-tung, Taipei Times
Fifteen people were taken to local hospitals with burns and related injuries, with two people sustaining burns to about 90 percent of their bodies.
The area is popular among students and young people and has a number of restaurants, retail stores and entertainment facilities at the Fengjia Night Market (逢甲夜市), which is close to Feng Chia University (逢甲大學).
Video footage of the incident showed smoke filling a narrow street as flames rise from buildings and pedestrians and motorcyclists flee the scene.
Photo: Su Chin-feng, Taipei Times
Taichung Fire Department chief Hsiao Huan-chang (蕭煥章) said three buildings were in flames when firefighters arrived.
They worked to extinguish the blaze and attended to five injured people in the area, he said, adding that firefighters used ladders to evacuate four people who were trapped in buildings, and treated six people for smoke inhalation.
Hsiao said 23 fire engines with 69 firefighters responded to the incident and brought the blaze under control in about 30 minutes.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
The identity of the deceased is yet to be confirmed, he added.
It is suspected that a restaurant employee who was changing a gas cylinder did not properly close the valve, resulting in a leak, Hsiao said.
The employee reportedly tried to disperse the gas with an electric fan, which could have caused the explosion if the fan produced an electrical spark, officials said.
Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and deputy mayors Lin Yi-ying (林依瑩) and Chang Kuang-yao (張光瑤) last night visited hospitals where the injured people were being treated.
Lin Chia-lung said the streets surrounding the area where the explosion took place were still restricted to public access, as officials were investigating the scene to determine the cause of the incident.
Lin Chia-lun asked the public to stay away from the area to avoid interfering with the investigation.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
RSS