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
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
The nation’s usually punctual high-speed rail system yesterday was hit by major disruptions after all scheduled services were canceled and replaced with three hourly trains offering only non-reserved seating, affecting more than 200,000 passengers. Preliminary findings indicate the disruption was caused by a faulty power module in a track switch control cabinet, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said, adding that as a full system inspection could only be conducted after operations end for the day, a decision on whether normal service would resume today would be announced before the first train departs. During a routine inspection early yesterday, a switch signal abnormality
RSS