Lai Chun-ju (賴俊儒), 33, a firefighter who died in a factory fire in Pingtung County on Friday evening, had planned a honeymoon for next month with his new wife, his mother said, who lamented the death of her son.
Lai’s mother, who rushed to the hospital with Lai’s father and their son’s British wife soon after being informed the firefighter was seriously injured in the fire, said she was always proud of her son.
Several of Lai’s friends and relatives left messages on the deceased firefighter’s Facebook page, with one saying: “I wish it was not true.”
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
Another one said: “The mission is done. Rest in Peace.” A third called Lai a “dauntless hero.”
The fire has killed four firefighters, with more than 90 people injured as of 4:40pm yesterday. The cause of the fire and subsequent explosions remains under investigation.
Pingtung County Commissioner Chou Chun-mi (周春米) on Friday night sent her condolences to the family members of the victims, promising she would do her best to help the families to take care of funeral affairs.
Lai’s father, who used to be a firefighter as well, said it was not anyone’s fault, but added it was all destined.
A second deceased firefighter, Chung Chi-yuan (鍾吉垣), 38, was married with one daughter, Chung’s father said.
Chung’s father said his son had followed in the steps of his uncle to become a firefighter as he liked to go on missions to rescue people.
The father said that he became uneasy after learning that his son had rushed to the deadly fire. When he got a phone call from Chung’s superior about what happened to his son at about 1am yesterday, he was heartbroken.
A third dead firefighter was Chen Po-han (陳柏翰), 32. Huang Chi-feng (黃基峰), an official with the county’s Bureau of Fire and Emergency Services, who used to be a fireman, said Chen was raised in a single-parent household and was filial to his mother. It was out of wanting to take care of his mother that he requested a transfer from the Keelung Fire Department to the Pingtung County Fire Bureau.
Su Yuan-yung (蘇元庸) from the fire department in Keelung, who used to work with Chen in Keelung, added that Chen had used his savings to take his mother to Europe for a vacation.
The fourth firefighter was Shih Pao-hsiung (施寶翔), 37. Huang said Shih was always caring toward his colleagues.
Shih’s wife said their six-year-old and four-year-old children had close bonds with their father, and at the first instance when Shih was reported missing on Friday evening, she did not dare to let the children know.
As yesterday was a make-up school day for the children, she added she also did not wish to break the sad news that their father had died to them before they headed off to school.
Additional reporting by Yeh Yung-chien and Huang Chia-lin
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS