Sat, Jan 04, 2025 page3

• Half of Pingtung hospital set to be demolished

  PUBLIC SAFETY: After a fire killed eight patients and a technician in October, almost half of the hospital’s structures were found to have been illegally built

  • By Lo Hsin-chen, Tsai Tsung-hsien and Esme Yeh / Staff reporters, with staff writer
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  About half of Antai Tian-Sheng Memorial Hospital would be demolished on Jan. 14, as the structures were discovered to have been illegally built, following a fire at the hospital last year that killed nine people, the Pingtung County Government said yesterday.

  The fire at the hospital in Donggang Township (東港) on Oct. 3 killed eight patients and a technician.

  According to the Rules Governing the Public Safety Inspection in Buildings (建築物公共安全檢查簽證及申報辦法), hospitals should report the results of public safety inspections and verifications every year.

  

  Antai Tian-Sheng Memorial Hospital in Pingtung County’s Donggang Township is pictured in an undated photograph.

  Photo courtesy of the Pingtung County Government

  The building owner or user is required to commission a professional institution or inspector to conduct a public safety inspection and report the results to local construction authorities.

  The county government yesterday said the hospital’s safety inspections have for years been done by the same institution that built it, which invariably verified the quality of its own work.

  The institution was fined NT$60,000 for the false verification, while a NT$300,000 fine was imposed on the hospital for changing the use of buildings without approval, it said, adding that the hospital’s five buildings all had large-scale illegal additions.

  The licensed construction area of Building D, where most of the people were killed and injured, was 10,618m2, but it was illegally expanded into a building with six floors above ground, of which 4,490m2 was illegally constructed, or 42.3 percent, the county said, citing measurements from the Donggang Land Office.

  A power center next to Building D, where the fire originated, had only 65.68m2 that was legally constructed, all on the ground floor, the county government said.

  However, four floors were illegally added to the structure, totalling 1,510m2 of illegal construction area, or 3,300 percent, the government said, citing data from the office.

  The illegal construction area of Building D and the power center totaled 6,000m2, the county government said, adding that other illegal additions included a two-floor building rented to a convenience store and the hospital’s General Affairs Office.

  The ratio of total illegal construction area (10,310m2) to total legal construction area (21,830m2) was 47.2 percent, meaning that nearly half of the hospital was illegally built, it said.

  The hospital provided healthcare services on more than two illegal floors of Building D. It also installed life-sustaining systems, emergency generators and other power-supply and oxygen-supply equipment, the county government said.

  Given that the large-scale illegal additions and their illegal applications have severely affected public safety, and the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office had conducted investigations, the county government decided to conduct a forced demolition after the patients and personnel are evacuated, it said.

  The hospital yesterday said that “everything is being improved as required by the law. Thanks for everyone’s concern.”

  It did not comment on whether operations would resume.
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