The operator of a Pingtung County factory where a fire and subsequent explosions claimed the lives of at least nine people, was fined NT$2.4 million (US$74,654) for contraventions of related regulations, including storing excess flammable materials in the workplace, the county government said yesterday.
Pingtung County Commissioner Chou Chun-mi (周春米) said the fine was imposed on Launch Technologies Co, the operator of the Pingtung golf ball factory, in accordance with the Fire Services Act (消防法).
Regulations allow for the factory to store a maximum of 100kg of organic peroxides used to manufacture golf ball cores, but the facility had stored 3,000kg of the substances, which are known to be a severe fire and explosion hazard, Chou said.
Photo: Chen Yen-ting, Taipei Times
Organic peroxides are listed as public hazardous materials under the Fire Services Act and an independent building should be used to store the substances.
In contrast, the first floor of the Launch Technologies’ factory was used as a warehouse and the second floor for manufacturing operations, she said.
BREACH
This is an apparent breach of regulatory requirements and the local government fined the factory operator NT$300,000 for the infraction, she said.
The company provided firefighters with a safety data sheet upon their arrival at the scene, but it was incomplete and contained only one organic peroxide type, she said.
She added that while the company later provided data about two other types of chemical substances, it contravened regulations by failing to provide firefighters with necessary rescue information and data, such as chemical types and quantities, a route map of the factory location and diagrams showing the layout of the plant.
The company was fined NT $600,000 for this infraction, Chou said.
The local government meted out an additional fine of NT$1.5 million to the company for its negligence and the 20 minute delay in reporting the blaze to the fire bureau.
Chou said that after the Pingtung County Fire Bureau received a call at 5:31pm on Friday, the firefighters arrived at the location at 5:42pm, but did not receive a safety data sheet until 5:55pm. In less than three minutes, the firefighters put on their gear and entered the premises, which was followed by the first explosion at 6:01pm.
The company would also be liable for endangering public safety and negligence resulting in the deaths, Chou said.
The Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office also asked the Pingtung branch of the nonprofit Association for Victims Support to help the families of victims file a request to freeze the company’s assets.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its