Six firemen killed when blazing bowling alley collapses in Taiwan
Six
firemen were killed today as they fought a blaze that engulfed a bowling alley
in northern Taiwan
The men, all in their 20s,
were trapped and killed in a sudden burst of flames which caused the partial
collapse of the building in Taoyuan county.
Two of the firemen who died
had graduated from Taiwan
Police Academy
The fire broke out in the
early hours of the morning when the venue was shut, police said.
About 90 firefighters had been sent to the scene
and two workers were rescued uninjured, the Taoyuan fire department said.
“There was a lot of smoke. We
decided that our firemen should stop going in and requested our colleagues to
pull out, but they did not have time to evacuate during a sudden burst of
flames,” said fire department official Shih Shou-yang.
An initial investigation revealed the fire could
have been started by a fault in a electricity conversion system, installed on
the second floor of the bowling alley, which was an illegal structure,
department officials said.
Taoyuan’s mayor Cheng
Wen-tsan ordered the operators of the illegal bowling alley to be punished, and
called for all illegal structures in the county to be demolished.
Cheng wrote on his Facebook
page: “Great sadness. Six firemen unfortunately died in the line of
duty.”
The families of each of the
firemen that died would receive a consolation payment of NT$19 million (about
HK$4.7 million), he said.
Cheng also promised that
firefighting equipment and facilities at all fire departments in Taoyuan would
be upgraded, and subsidies for firemen would be increased.
Local news media said that
the six dead firemen, including the two new graduates, were not experienced
enough to have tackled a major fire like this.
They urged the authorities to
ensure that such a tragedy never happened again.
Earlier this month, five
mainland Chinese firefighters were killed in Harbin ,
in Heilongjiang
The oldest of the firemen was
aged 22, while the youngest, aged 18, had completed only one month's training
before he died, The Beijing News said.
Inexperience and the high
staff turnover had contributed to the deaths of the young firemen, mainland
media reported.
Structure of the Lead：
WHO- Six firefighters
WHO- Six firefighters
WHEN- 20, Jan., 2015
WHAT- Six firemen killed when blazing bowling alley
collapses in Taiwan
WHY- not given
WHERE- Bowling alley in Taoyuan
HOW- nor given
Keywords：
1. engulf：捲入
2. venue：犯罪地點
3. evacuate：撤離
4. illegal：違法的
5. demolish：毀壞
6. consolation：撫慰金
7. upgrade：改進更新
8. warehouse：倉庫
HOW- nor given
Keywords：
1. engulf：捲入
2. venue：犯罪地點
3. evacuate：撤離
4. illegal：違法的
5. demolish：毀壞
6. consolation：撫慰金
7. upgrade：改進更新
8. warehouse：倉庫
