26 die, 267 hurt in gas blast horror
Print Edition
THE 12,000 people who fled in fear of more gas pipeline explosions in Taiwan’s second-largest city were returning to their homes yesterday.
Authorities said there was no risk of more blasts like those that had devastated an area of more than 2 square kilometers, killing at least 26 people and injuring 267 others.
With clean-up work underway, investigators are turning to the task of determining the cause of the blasts, the industrial city’s worst such disaster in 16 years.
Most of the four ruptured street sections in the densely populated district of Kaohsiung had been declared safe from further explosions by yesterday afternoon, a city spokesman said.
A fire in a 10-meter section that had burned through the night had also been extinguished.
Five explosions ripped through four streets starting around midnight on Thursday, catapulting cars into the air and blasting cement rubble at passers-by, many of whom were out late because of a nearby night market.
That came about three hours after a gas leak was reported on Kaixuan Road, but emergency services had been unable to locate the source.
Four firefighters were among the victims and two were missing, while at least six fire trucks were flung into the rubble.
The blasts sent flames shooting into the sky and hurled concrete through the air, leaving broad, meter-deep trenches down the middle of roads.
Many of those injured in the disaster are still receiving emergency treatment.
The disaster was Taiwan’s second in as many weeks following the crash of a TransAsia Airways plane on the island of Penghu on July 23 that killed 48 people and injured 10 others.
“Last night around midnight, the house started shaking and I thought it was a huge earthquake, but when I opened the door, I saw white smoke all over and smelled gas,” said Chen Qing-tao, 38, who lives 10 buildings away from the blast site.
The explosions were believed to be caused by leaking propene, a petrochemical material not intended for public use, said Chang Jia-juch, director of the island’s disaster response center. Chang said the cause and location of the leaks were unknown.
The exploded gas line belongs to government-owned CPC Corp, which said there were no signs of problems before the explosions.
Propene is mainly used for making the plastic polypropylene used in a wide variety of packaging, caps and films.
The city will carry out a formal investigation on what caused the explosions, said city spokesman Ting Yun-kung.
Industrial-use pipelines run through Kaohsiung’s residential neighborhoods because industry preceded the construction of housing, Ting said.
The port city contains much of Taiwan’s heavy industry, especially petrochemicals.
Video from broadcasters showed residents searching for victims overnight in shattered storefronts and rescuers placing injured people on stretchers. Numerous fires sent smoke pouring into the night sky above the Chian-Chen district, where factories operate near low-rise residential buildings.
The government’s disaster response center spent much of yesterday trying to prevent secondary explosions.
With the risk easing after mid-day, all but 300 of an original 12,000 evacuees had left emergency shelters and just one of an initial nine remained open.
Chen Chu, Kaohsiung’s mayor, had gone on television urging people to take shelter until their neighborhoods were declared safe.
However, officials were still conducting safety checks on some of the damaged homes.
Many of the dead and injured had been outside near a night market and were hit by flying rubble or cars, a police officer at the scene said. Police and firefighters suffered burns while trying to control blazes.
Area resident Chang Bi-chu, 63, described seeing dead bodies along the roadside. “I felt really bad. After all, there just was the air crash in Penghu last week.”
Power to 12,000 people in the area was cut, and 23,600 lost their gas supplies. Some power was restored last night.
Paramedics with rescue dogs were combing the neighborhood for survivors.
Rescuers expected to find few, if any, people in the rubble because no buildings had collapsed.
Taiwan said all flags would fly at half-mast for three days from Tuesday in honor of the victims of both the Penghu air crash and the Kaohsiung explosions. Island leader Ma Ying-jeou paused at a scheduled event yesterday morning to call for a minute’s silence.
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