Police detain 5 for questioning over safety at water park event
Print Edition
MORE than 400 people were being treated in hospital yesterday after fire broke out at a water park in Taiwan on Saturday night when colored powder thrown from a stage exploded.
Many suffered serious burns after the blaze spread through the crowd at a music party, authorities said. Others inhaled large amounts of black carbon dust.
A total of 498 people sustained injuries in the incident at the Formosa Fun Coast water park in New Taipei City, the city’s health bureau said yesterday, with 419 undergoing hospital treatment, including 183 in intensive care who needed urgent skin-grafts.
The bureau said it had sent out urgent calls to organ donation centers and the plastic surgery medical association for donated skin, artificial skin and albumin among other biological necessities.
Six foreigners and seven visitors from China’s mainland, Hong Kong and Macau were among the injured being treated in 43 local hospitals.
The fire, which broke out around 8:30pm on Saturday, was sparked by an accidental explosion of a colored theatrical powder sprayed from the stage, the local fire agency and media said.
The powder used during a one-off event called “Color Play Asia” ignited along the ground, mainly burning people’s lower bodies, said Wang Wei-sheng, a spokesman for New Taipei City’s fire department.
Local government official Lin Chieh-yu told reporters: “It remains under investigation as to what made the powder explode.”
At an emergency meeting yesterday, Eric Chu, mayor of New Taipei, ordered a complete moratorium on the use of such powder in his jurisdiction.
Authorities in other parts of the island also quickly controlled use of the powder and other flammable materials in public places to prevent more accidents.
Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou visited burns victims in hospital yesterday afternoon and said that the authorities would be doing their best to ensure victims received the best medical care and find out who was responsible for the incident.
Five people, including event manager Lu Chung-chi, were detained by police.
They are being questioned by prosecutors on charges of offenses against public safety and negligence of duties that caused severe injuries, a police spokesman said.
No fatalities were reported in the incident, but victims suffered burns on limbs and torsos, with some passing out from the pain while others had burned clothes stuck to their skin, according to media reports.
“Her whole life is ruined,” sobbed the father of Chu Li, an 18-year-old girl with burns on 80 percent of her body, during Ma’s hospital visit.
Among the others injured were Chen Lingdan and Zhuang Chujun, both students from the Chinese mainland who are studying at Taiwan’s Chiao Tung University.
With her arms and legs bandaged, Chen, 24, looked pale as she received treatment in MacKay Memorial Hospital yesterday.
“She suffered burns to 53 percent of her body and was in great pain when she woke up,” said her tutor Wendy Lai.
Classmate Wang Yiyi said: “We have just finished this term’s courses, Chen and Zhuang went to the party to relax. They forwarded us photos taken at the park at about six o’clock yesterday.”
Chen was close to the water and managed to put out the fire on her body quickly, but Chu was closer to the stage and suffered much worse injuries. Chu is still in the intensive care unit of another hospital in Taipei.
Both Chen and Chu’s parents have been notified and are expected to arrive in the island in about two days, Lai said.
Officials said that the blaze was the worst incidence of mass injury in the history of New Taipei City.
Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, expressed sympathy for the victims, and the hope that they receive timely and appropriate treatment.
The mainland’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait has contacted Taiwan’s Strait Exchange Foundation to provide all possible assistance, Ma said, and is helping relatives of injured people who were from the mainland to travel to Taiwan.
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