The bodies of two missing people were found yesterday, more than 24 hours after a fire and subsequent explosions at a factory in Pingtung County, raising the death toll to nine, authorities said.
The blaze at Launch Technologies Co’s (明揚國際) golf ball factory at Pingtung Technology Industrial Park (屏東科技產業園區) also killed four firefighters and injured another 109 people.
Search teams are still looking for one missing person.
Photo: CNA
The fire was extinguished at 9:56pm on Saturday, more than 28 hours after it started on Friday evening, the Pingtung County Fire Bureau said.
Bureau Director Hsu Mei-hsueh (許美雪) said it received a call about the fire at 5:31pm on Friday, and firefighters arrived at the location 13 minutes later.
At 6:09pm, after firefighters had entered the premises, an explosion occurred, causing part of the structure to collapse, trapping several firefighters and workers.
A few minutes later, at 6:28pm, a second explosion occurred, Hsu said.
Initially, she had told the media that explosions occurred soon after firefighters were thought to have doused the flames with water, but on Saturday said that water was not used out of fear it could react with combustible gases at the site.
Firefighters instead used dry agents to extinguish the fire, she said.
She yesterday said that she misspoke on Friday due to the chaos at the scene.
She said that when firefighters arrive at a disaster site, they seek to determine the conditions before performing rescue operations.
Firefighters have been trained for situations involving volatile chemicals, and their trucks include a chemical substance checklist to help them look for signs of dangerous chemicals and how to respond to them, she added.
Although the factory provided firefighters with a safety data sheet upon their arrival, it was incomplete, Hsu said, adding that the cause of the incident is still under investigation.
Launch Technologies president Liu An-hao (劉安?) yesterday led executive officials in a bow of apology in an online news conference.
They expressed sorrow over the deaths of firefighters and company staff and offered condolences to the families of victims.
The company would not avoid responsibility, Launch Technologies general manager Lu Ying-cheng (呂英誠) said, adding that it would set up a trust fund to care for victims and their families.
As eight basketball-playing international students appealed to the Taiwanese basketball industry after they were excluded from the draft of an upcoming new league merging the P.League+ and the T1 League, the new league’s preparatory committee spokesperson Chang Shu-jen (張樹人) yesterday said the committee would tomorrow discuss the supplementary measures and whether the international students can join the draft. The students on Tuesday called for support on their right to play in the upcoming new league, after a merger involving the two leagues impacted their eligibility for the draft. The international players from the University Basketball Association (UBA), led by first pick prospect
Some foreign companies are considering moving Taiwanese employees out of China after Beijing said it could impose the death penalty on “die-hard” Taiwanese independence advocates, four people familiar with the matter said. The new guidelines have caused some Taiwanese expatriates and foreign multinationals operating in China to scramble to assess their legal risks and exposure, said the people, who include a lawyer and two executives with direct knowledge of the discussions. “Several companies have come to us to assess the risks to their personnel,” said the lawyer, James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based partner at the Perkins Coie law firm. He declined to identify
WARNING: China has stepped up harassment of foreign vessels after its new regulation took effect last month, an official said, citing an incident in the Diaoyutai Islands The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday linked China’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel illegally operating in its territorial waters to Beijing’s new regulation authorizing the China Coast Guard to seize boats in waters it claims. Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating near China’s coast close to Kinmen County late on Tuesday and took it to a Chinese port, the CGA said. The Penghu-registered squid fishing vessel Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was boarded and seized by China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), 17.5 nautical miles (32.4km) from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen,
NOT ENOUGH: Although the US is to deliver Switchblade 300s and Altius 600M-Vs to Taiwan, military leaders believe the nation needs more attack drones, a source said The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has included the funding needed to mass-produce Type-1 and Type-2 suicide drones in next year’s budget plan, a military source said yesterday. Although the US government last month approved sales of Switchblade 300 loitering munitions and Altius 600M-V uncrewed aerial vehicles to Taiwan, which are scheduled for delivery between this year and the next, military leaders assessed that Taiwan would still have an inadequate number of attack drones to bolster national defense, the source said, asking to remain anonymous. Taiwan needs to mass produce locally made attack drones, including Type-1 and Type-2 suicide drones, they