Nine people died and more than 300 were evacuated after a fire at a hospital in Pingtung County yesterday morning.
Emergency services were called after heavy smoke was seen billowing from the lower floors of Block D at Antai Tian-Sheng Memorial Hospital in Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港).
The blaze was put out after 1pm.
Photo courtesy of the Pingtung County Government via CNA
Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the incident.
Firefighters, police and other emergency response units arrived at about 7:40am and assisted medical personnel to evacuate wheelchair-bound and bedridden patients from the hospital complex, with the rain and strong winds brought by Typhoon Krathon adding to the difficulty of the operation.
Pingtung County Fire Department chief Lee Pin-cheng (李彬正) said that 324 patients had been evacuated safely, but eight resident patients were found dead, mainly due to smoke inhalation, on the hospital’s fifth, 10th, and 11th floors.
Photo: CNA
The body of one hospital staff member, who was initially reported missing, was found in a stairwell, having died from smoke inhalation, Lee added.
Many people were treated for smoke inhalation and other minor injuries, he said, adding that 113 people were transferred to other hospitals in Pingtung and Kaohsiung.
Pingtung prosecutors launched an investigation into what was one of the worst fires in Taiwan in recent decades to determine the cause of blaze, including to determine whether it was deliberately lit or due to negligence, and to verify legal liability and compensation.
A check conducted later indicated that the blaze started in an electricity distribution room on the second floor after an air compressor caught fire, possibly due to unstable power supply caused by the effects of Typhoon Krathon, hospital founder Su Ching-Chuan (蘇清泉) said.
Su, a legislator-at-large for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), said that the hospital undergoes monthly inspections by firefighters.
A chimney effect caused smoke and sparks to reach the upper floors, resulting in the deaths, Su said, adding that he would provide assistance and financial compensation to the families of the nine people who died and those who were injured.
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
RSS