Taipei hospice fire claims 9, 30 injured
Print Edition
Nine people were killed and 30 injured in a blaze that broke out early yesterday at a hospice for the terminally ill near Taipei, officials said.
All of the 44 people inside, including 33 patients, were evacuated after the fire started at the hospice on the seventh floor of a nine-story hospital in New Taipei city.
Sixteen patients had cardiac arrests and seven were revived. The other nine died with the cause of death given as smoke inhalation, according to the local fire department.
New Taipei fire department official Hung Liang-chien told reporters an initial probe showed that the fire was likely caused by the short circuit of an electrical device.
鈥淲e are clarifying whether it鈥檚 the power cable of the hospital鈥檚 electric bed or an air cushion bed brought in by relatives鈥 of a patient, he said.
One caregiver working in the hospice reported seeing a spark on the bed where the fire started, according to local media.
Local fire chief Huang Te-ching denied reports the sprinkler system had malfunctioned. 鈥淭he sprinkler device was on but there鈥檚 some distance between its location and where the fire started so the fire couldn鈥檛 be immediately put out.鈥
He added that authorities were also examining why there was a nine-minute delay by the hospital in reporting the fire.
CCTV footage on local media showed staff rushing through the hospice corridors, carrying patients out in their arms or in wheelchairs to evacuate them after the fire broke out.
There have been nine hospital fires in Taiwan in the past decade claiming 37 lives.
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