A fire and subsequent explosion in a residential area in Tainan early yesterday injured 15 people and damaged 68 homes, the Tainan City Fire Bureau said.
The bureau said it received a report at 1:12am yesterday that a pile of waste in a vacant lot in Annan District’s (安南) Haidian Road had caught fire and exploded, adding that it dispatched 144 firefighters and 53 firetrucks to battle the blaze and evacuate nearby residents.
It took more than four hours to extinguish the fire, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Tainan Environmental Protection Bureau
The incident damaged 11 privately owned vehicles, as well as eight fire engines, one ambulance and two disaster assessment vehicles, the bureau said.
The three homes closest to the blast site sustained the most severe damage, it added.
Twelve people and three firefighters were injured, sustaining cuts to the head or other minor injuries, the bureau said, adding that no one was seriously hurt.
The Tainan City Government’s air quality and pollutant sampling data showed no abnormalities after the incident.
A man surnamed Yang (楊) allegedly managed the land, allowing a Kaohsiung waste operator to illegally dump trash outside its jurisdiction in contravention of the Waste Disposal Act (廢棄物清理法), the bureau said, citing a police investigation.
The case has been referred to prosecutors, while the Kaohsiung Environmental Protection Bureau has been notified about conducting a joint investigation, it said.
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), who had been visiting Singapore, flew home after learning of the incident and arrived at the scene last night to assess the damage.
The city government would prioritize helping affected residents find temporary accommodation and restore their homes, he said, adding that lawyers would be hired to help them seek compensation and hold those responsible accountable.
The city government has activated emergency housing and relief measures for the 11 households that were most severely affected, Huang said.
Each household would receive NT$20,000 in emergency assistance, and civil engineers would be brought in to assess the structural safety of the homes to provide a basis for subsequent repairs and compensation claims, he added.
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