Video that surfaced on Tuesday shows the moments before a fireball engulfed partygoers at Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里) on Saturday last week, killing one person and injuring nearly 500.
The footage from an onstage camera is expected to assist investigators to determine the cause of the ignition of cornstarch powder during an event at the park.
In the video, two workers are seen on stage using carbon dioxide-powered sprayers to dispense colored powder over the crowd.
Photo: CNA
The video shows flames flaring toward the right-hand side of the stage then reducing after about six seconds.
The video shows a worker on the stage spraying flames with a canister, apparently causing another flare-up.
The worker, surnamed Shen (沈), said that as he rushed to douse the flames that had engulfed a person running toward him from the dance floor, he mistook the canister for a fire extinguisher.
Shen apologized for his actions.
Other accounts indicated a similar mishap, where a secondary flare up had occurred as a man rushed to pull a woman from the flames, kicking up dust as he ran.
Shen was questioned by the Shihlin Prosecutors’ Office, which cleared him of charges relating to criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
However, he has been placed under house arrest and is listed as a key witness.
As of yesterday, there were 432 injured people being treated at various hospitals nationwide. Among them, 252 with severe burns were still in intensive care wards, according to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Investigators also questioned a park worker surnamed Lu (盧), who was identified from the video footage.
Lu said he had arrived at the park on Saturday morning to cover for a friend who had been hired to work at the event, prosecutors said.
According to the prosecutors, Lu said that event organizers had only given him a 15-minute lesson on how to spray powder.
The recoil from operating the canister sent him stumbling on his first few attempts, Lu was reported as saying.
Lu said that he was instructed to spray large amounts of powder as the revelry peaked, prosecutors said.
He saw that an effects machine on the stage was producing flames, which sparked a series of ignitions, they said.
Investigators said the disaster was likely caused by a faulty effects machine, based on analysis of key footage submitted by eyewitnesses.
By comparing sets of footage, investigators said they have established a rough time line of events and that the flames appeared shortly after the effects machine began operating.
The flames first appeared in the midst of thick plumes of colored powder ejected by the effects machine and began burning in the air before spreading to the ground in a blaze that persisted for about 10 seconds, prosecutors said.
They said that other ignition sources that might have led to the blasts included lit cigarettes, sparks from malfunctioning effects machines and heat given off by high-powered stage lights.
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