Reuters/Taipei
The number of party revellers injured in a fire at a Taiwan water park was put at 498 yesterday as authorities began investigating the cause, suspected to be a sudden explosion of a coloured powder thrown on those attending the party.
Six foreigners and seven visitors from Hong Kong, mainland China and Macau were among those injured after about 1,000 people dancing at Saturday’s event were sprayed with the powder, as a special feature of a festival also held in previous years.
The figure released late yesterday by local authorities was lower than an earlier estimate of 519 injured due to patients being transferred between hospitals and being double-counted, a government official said.
The blaze, which broke out at around 8.30pm at the Formosa Fun Coast water park on the outskirts of the capital, Taipei, is suspected to have been caused by an explosion of the coloured powder, local government official Lin Chieh-yu told Reuters.
“It remains under investigation as to what made the powder explode,” he said.
Authorities have banned the use of the powder until the investigation is completed and its safety can be assured.
“The next few days will be a critical time for the injured,” Taiwan Premier Mao Chi-kuo told reporters. All of the 498 injured were still being treated in 43 hospitals across the island, according to the latest figures provided by the New Taipei City government.
In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, rescuers treated hundreds of people, most of them aged between 20 and 30, who wore wet swimsuits and lay on inflatable plastic doughnuts.
A video posted online by Apple Daily showed dancers in front of the stage engulfed in clouds of coloured powder a moment before a fireball erupted, followed by pockets of flame, triggering panic and screams.
“There was blood and people were on fire,” one injured man said.
No death has yet been reported, but victims suffered burns on limbs and torsos, with some passing out from the pain while others had burned clothes stuck to their skin, media reports and pictures showed.
“Her whole life is ruined,” sobbed the father of Chu Li, an 18-year-old girl with burns on 80% of her body, during a visit by president Ma Ying-jeou to victims in a Taipei hospital.
Soldiers, army vehicles and medical services joined the rescue effort, while hospitals in four municipal precincts, along with Taipei, are treating sufferers.
The amusement park has been closed temporarily, it said on its website yesterday.
Taipei has sweltered in temperatures exceeding 30C in recent weeks.
Witnesses described the scene at a Taiwan water park as “hell” after a ball of fire ripped through a crowd
Horrifying amateur video footage showed crowds of young revellers dancing in front of a stage and cheering as clouds of green and yellow powder covered them at the “colour party” Saturday night.
But their joy turned to terror when the powder suddenly erupted into flames engulfing the partygoers in an inferno as they ran screaming for their lives.
Some were dressed only in swimwear and images from the scene show many with severe burns being tended by those who escaped.
The injury toll from the blast sharply rose yesterday morning as officials began to track down victims who had taken themselves to the hospital or had been ferried there by others.One male student who sustained minor injuries described the scene as “hell”.
“There was blood everywhere, including in the pool where lots of the injured were soaking themselves for relief from the pain,” he told reporters.
His visibly shaken girlfriend added: “I saw lots of people whose skin was gone.”
Ambulances had struggled to reach the scene, and victims were carried away on rubber rings and inflatable dinghies as friends desperately tried to get them out.
Bystanders poured bottles of water on the scorched skin of the injured. Trails of bloody footprints leading away from the stage remained.
One male witness told local news channel CTI: “It started on the left side of the stage. At the beginning I thought it was part of the special effects of the party but then I realised there was something wrong and people started screaming and running.”
Officials described 202 of the injured as in serious condition.
The severely wounded are being treated in intensive care units at 37 different hospitals.
“The reason why the burns were so severe was that in addition to burns to the skin, there were also injuries caused by burns to the respiratory organs from the large amount of colour powder inhaled,” Lee Lih-jong, deputy chief of the health bureau of the New Taipei City government, told AFP.
“The next 24 hours will be critical for those severely injured.”
Several major hospitals in Taiwan have been asked to donate skin grafts and surgical equipment to help treat the injured, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said.
The water park issued a statement yesterday saying it was “deeply saddened” and would cooperate with the ongoing investigation.
General manager Chen Hui-ying told reporters that all partygoers had been insured but did not say to what amount.
“Throwing coloured corn starch around... we had never heard such an activity could be dangerous,” she said.
The health bureau’s Lee said details of the ages of the victims were not yet available, “but all looked very young, in their 20s or even younger”.
“Our initial understanding is this explosion and fire... was caused by the powder spray. It could have been due to the heat of the lights on the stage,” said a spokesman for the New Taipei City fire department.
Deputy fire chief Chen Chung-yueh said yesterday the blast may have been caused by “sparks from machinery or lighting equipment”.
Five people including event manager Lu Chung-chi were detained by police.
They are being questioned by prosecutors on charges of offences against public safety and negligence of duties that caused severe injuries, a police spokesman said.
Lu and a hardware technician named as Chiu Po-ming were released on bail and banned from leaving the country, China’s state news agency, CNA, reported.
Color Play Asia has also run other “colour parties” in Taiwan in the past two years.
Taiwan’s premier Mao Chih-kuo, who visited the injured yesterday, ordered that all such events be banned unless their safety could be assured.
Silhouettes of people running from a blaze are seen at the Formosa Fun Coast water park in this still image taken from video shot on Saturday and prov
