New Year Fireworks Suspected Cause of Fire in Miaoli County
[Picture: appropriated from Apple Daily, source unattributed]
Two adjacent recycling centers went up in flames shortly after midnight in Miaoli County, New Years Day, 2018. Residents suspected fireworks were the cause of the conflagration, but the fire department said investigations were ongoing.
At around 1:00 am this morning, firefighters responded to calls reporting a fire in Zhunan Township. Large amounts of waste paper, plastics, and other combustible materials created an intense blaze that spread quickly. Due to much of the material being compacted, the fire was difficult to extinguish completely, and it was still smoldering at 7:00 am. Approximately 300 ping of materials, warehouses, sheds, and equipment were consumed by the fire.
Sixteen fire appliances were dispatched to the scene from seven fire stations, along with 50 firefighters.
As dawn broke, excavators were breaking up compacted piles of smoldering trash while firefighters aimed streams of water. It was expected that the operation would continue until around noon.
Firefighters in Taipei Also Busy
While revelers were sleeping it off after staying up for New Years, or fighting sleep to meet the first dawn of 2018, firefighters in Taipei City rushed to an apartment building on Yanping Road at around 2:30 am. Thirteen people were evacuated from the building, and 5 residents were treated for smoke-inhalation and later released from hospital.
Eighteen fire appliances, six ambulances, and a total of 61 personnel were dispatched to the scene of the incident.
The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
Coastal Windbreak on Fire in Hsinchu County
A wildfire in Hsinchu County is suspected to have been caused by errant fireworks.
Firefighters received reports shortly after midnight that a fire had taken hold on sand dunes near Nanliao Port in Hsinchu County. The fire consumed about 10,000 square meters of grassland and trees and took 2 hours to extinguish.
A resident told reporters that he had lived in the area for about 10 years, and that the same thing has happened almost every year.
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