A gas explosion in a residential high-rise building in suburban Taipei has killed two people and injured 13 others.
On Friday an explosion occurred in a third-floor apartment in New Taipei City. The explosion caused a fire in the building with nearly 90 households. The four most seriously injured people in the explosion were a grandmother, a girl, her toddler younger brother, and a firefighter. The grandmother and the brother were pronounced dead in hospital.
Officials said an initial investigation found that the blast originated in the master bedroom of the family’s third-floor apartment. Residents of the building said they smelled natural gas Thursday afternoon and alerted the gas company. They also said when workers arrived for inspection, they did not take the problem seriously, saying that it was a natural “biogas” issue.
The gas company involved is Shin Shin Natural Gas Co. It cut off the supply of natural gas after the explosion occurred and began checking the pipeline for breaches on Saturday.
The explosion followed a series of underground gas explosions on July 31 in the southern city of Kaohsiung, which killed 30 people and injured more than 300.