A year ago and far away from his hometown in New Hampshire, Alex Haas was fighting for his life after suffering burns to more than 90 percent of his body at an inferno at the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙樂園) water park in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里).
Flammable, colored corn starch was sprayed from a stage onto people dancing in a drained swimming pool. In an instant, the powder turned into a fireball that scattered burning dust onto Haas and many others. Investigators believe it came into contact with intense heat from the stage lighting and ignited.
A total of 508 people were injured on June 27, last year. Fifteen died. On April 27, the party organizer was sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison.
Most of the wounded are out of hospital but need rehabilitation for physical and emotional scars, and a new burn treatment center is opening for them tomorrow. A memorial concert was held yesterday in Taiwan.
Haas, who was in Taiwan teaching English, was believed to be the only American injured.
Covered in bandages, he was in a medically induced coma for two weeks in a Taipei hospital. His family flew from the small town of Mont Vernon to be with him and feared for the worst.
Today, his scars are healing and he has regained most of his mobility. He can drive a car, walk his dog and work on his art projects.
“I feel like I’m well on my way to being back to me again,” Haas, 27, said in a recent interview at his home.
Haas remembers the day of the fire at the Formosa Fun Coast water park vividly, stepping into the dust — which kept re-igniting — his hair and beard catching on fire, running away.
He suffered burns to his hands, underarms, torso, knees, legs and feet. Slowly, he started to improve. After two months, he was able to return to the US, but he still needed lots of care to help with his wounds and movement.
He has had at least a dozen surgeries, including rounds of laser treatments for scars. He started those in December last year at Massachusetts General Hospital.
“A lot of the pain’s been going away,” he said.
Among those impressed with his recovery is Henry Lin (林昀毅), director of the government-funded burn rehabilitation and post-acute care center at the New Taipei City Hospital.
“He can do everything by himself,” Lin said in an e-mail. “I think the original acute care hospital in Taiwan, the continuous care hospital [in Massachusetts] and the local hospital who provided daily physical therapy all did wonderful jobs.”
Good family and social support, combined with Haas’ optimism, also helped, he said.
Lin recently visited Haas while spending time at various burn care centers in the US, including the Johns Hopkins Burn Center in Maryland.
His center and Johns Hopkins have agreed to establish a clinical, academic and educational collaboration.
Last year, Johns Hopkins visited 12 hospitals across Taiwan after the fire and returned this year to focus on the patients’ rehabilitation.
In Taiwan, a judge said party organizer Lu Chung-chi (呂忠吉) failed to take precautions to prevent the explosion.
The National Health Insurance Administration sued him, seeking NT$436 million (US$13.41 million) in compensation.
Haas’ family has been following the victims’ recovery, such as a teenage girl who was in the room next to him in the intensive care unit. They sent her a care package.
“Repairing the emotional burden of this tragedy is another task altogether and one that deserves our attention,” they said on Facebook. “We have all, victims family and many others been affected deeply by this tragedy and have been down a horrific road.”
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
RSS