Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday.
The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯).
It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung Shan Medical University Hospital.
Photo courtesy of a Taichung resident
Fire Bureau Director-General Sun Fu-yu (孫福佑) said that the incident was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the department store’s 12th floor.
Renovation work on the 12th floor was ongoing when the blast occurred, but whether it was the cause remains to be investigated, he said.
Wu arrived at the site and expressed concern to people who were affected, saying that Shin Kong Group would assist with the investigation and take accountability for providing compensation for the people who were injured.
Photo courtesy of a Taichung resident
The company’s leadership yesterday offered NT$1 million (US$30,486) in compensation to each of the families of the people killed, and visited 25 injured people in hospitals to provide consolation money.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) said that the ministry has asked the Taichung Health Bureau to activate the mechanism for multiple casualty incidents.
The ministry also asked the Regional Emergency Medical Operations Center’s Taichung Branch to assist with referral of patients, she said.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
The injured people would first be sent to emergency rooms with triage performed on them to divert them to suitable hospitals, Lin said, calling on the public not to rubberneck.
A family of seven from Macau passing by the department store was struck by falling debris from the building due to the explosion.
The debris killed the family’s grandparents and seriously injured the two-year-old granddaughter, with the rest of the family incurring lighter injuries.
Mainland Affairs Council spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said the council’s Department of Hong Kong, Macau, Inner Mongolia and Tibetan Affairs has sent personnel to Taichung to learn more about the situation.
The council would report the incident to the Macanese government and take proactive measures to help the family, including assisting their relatives to travel to Taiwan if needed, he said.
The Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office said a task force of six prosecutors has been set up to collect evidence and conduct an investigation in collaboration with the police and the fire bureau.
Taichung Labor Affairs Bureau Director Chiu Yi-chuan (邱怡川) said the initial investigation was conducted based on witnesses’ testimony, as the department store’s 12th and nearby floors were still locked down.
The incident is suspected to be a dust explosion, given that fire sources such as welding activities were absent and there were no flames after the blast, he said.
The cause of the incident cannot be confirmed before the results of the fire bureau’s investigation, Chiu said, adding that the ministry would look into whether the construction site on the 12th floor had fire-proof and explosion-proof equipment.
An order to suspend the construction has been issued to the department store, he said.
The company undertaking the construction work would be fined between NT$30,000 and NT$300,000 if the site is found to have contravened the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法), he said.
Additional reporting by Lu Yun-feng, Tsai Shu-yuan
and Su Chin-feng
FOUR DESIGNATED AREAS: Notices were issued for live-fire exercises in waters south and northwest of Penghu, northeast of Keelung and west of Kaohsiung, they said The military is planning three major annual exercises across the army, navy and air force this month, with the navy’s “Hai Chiang” (海強, “Sea Strong”) drills running from today through Friday, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The Hai Chiang exercise, which is to take place in waters surrounding Taiwan, would feature P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and S-70C anti-submarine helicopters, the ministry said, adding that the drills aim to bolster the nation’s offshore defensive capabilities. China has intensified military and psychological pressure against Taiwan, repeatedly sending warplanes and vessels into areas near the nation’s air defense identification zone and across
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
SENATE RECOMMENDATION: The National Defense Authorization Act encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s navy to participate in the exercises in Hawaii The US Senate on Thursday last week passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, which strongly encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s naval forces to participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, as well as allocating military aid of US$1 billion for Taiwan. The bill, which authorizes appropriations for the military activities of the US Department of Defense, military construction and other purposes, passed with 77 votes in support and 20 against. While the NDAA authorizes about US$925 billion of defense spending, the Central News Agency yesterday reported that an aide of US
RSS