Evacuees return after massive blasts

Associated Press

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan

Hundreds of people who fled from gas-pipeline explosions in Taiwan’s second-largest city returned to their homes Friday after authorities said there was no more risk of blasts like the series that ripped apart streets overnight, killing 26 people and injuring 267.

With cleanup work underway in the 1-square-mile area, investigators were 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 were declared safe from further explosions by afternoon, a city spokesman said. A fire in a 10-yard-long section that burned through the night also had been put out.

Five explosions ripped through four streets starting about midnight Thursday, catapulting cars into the air and blasting concrete rubble at passers-by, many of whom were out late at a nearby night market.

That came about three hours after a gas leak had been 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 firetrucks were flung into the rubble. The blasts sent flames shooting into the sky and left broad, yard-deep trenches down the middle of roads.

Many of the injured still were receiving medical treatment. The disaster was Taiwan’s second in two weeks after the crash of a Trans-Asia Airways prop jet on the island of Penghu on July 23 that killed 48 people and injured 10.

“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 a short distance from the devastation.

The explosions were believed caused by leaking propene, a petrochemical material not intended for public use, said Chang Jia-juch, director of the Central Disaster Emergency Operation Center.