Two firefighters on Sunday night died in a Hsinchu City apartment complex fire, with the last of the 351 residents evacuated at about 1:10pm yesterday, the Hsinchu City Fire Bureau said.
After receiving a report of the fire at 10:55pm on Sunday, firefighters at the scene found that cables in a pipe room were burning and emitting thick smoke, the bureau said.
Using two water pipes, they brought the blaze under control at about 11:35pm, although residual smoldering continued, it said.
Photo courtesy of Hu Han-kung
Firefighters Lee Yung-chen (李詠真) and Chou Li-hsin (周立鑫) had entered one of the buildings where the power had gone out to rescue the people trapped inside, the bureau said.
The pair were taking the stairs to the third and eighth floors, where people were reportedly trapped, when they discovered they had insufficient oxygen, a firefighter said.
More firefighters were dispatched to rescue them after receiving distress signals, and found Lee and Chou collapsed on the third-floor stairwell, the firefighter said.
The thick and sticky smoke from the burning cables might have made it harder for them to escape, they said.
Due to the heavy smoke more than 100 people remained trapped in the complex yesterday morning, while firefighters worked to vent the smoke.
The complex consists of four 28-floor buildings.
One resident said her family waited on their balcony until about 7am yesterday before being rescued by a ladder truck.
The last of the 351 residents were evacuated from the complex in the early afternoon.
Some children inhaled smoke and needed to be hospitalized, the bureau said, but no other deaths were reported.
The cause of the fire and the deaths of the firefighters had yet to be determined as of yesterday.
Hsinchu Mayor Kao Hung-an (高虹安) early yesterday morning visited rescued residents and family members of the deceased firefighters at a hospital, offering her condolences and gratitude.
She said the city government would handle the affairs for Lee’s and Chou’s families.
Lee, 39, had served in the fire bureau for 19 years and Chou, 34, for 14 years, the bureau said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS