Nine die, 16 injured in hospital fire in New Taipei

Taipei, Aug. 13 (CNA) Nine people were killed and 16 others injured in a fire that broke out at a government hospital in New Taipei City in the early hours of Monday.

The victims included patients, nurses and caregivers, who were sent to eight other hospitals in Taipei and New Taipei for emergency treatment, said the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) Taipei Hospital, where the fire broke out Monday.

It said 16 of the 25 victims suffered out-of-hospital cardiac arrest but seven them were resuscitated and are now in intensive care at various hospitals.

The others died, putting the death toll from the fire at nine as of Monday noon, according to the hospital, which is located in the city's Xinzhuang District.

According to the New Taipei Fire Department, a foreign caregiver reported a spark on a bed in the hospice ward on the seventh floor at around 4:36 a.m. Monday but by the time emergency crews arrived, the fire had already spread throughout the ward.

The fire was extinguished at 5:27 a.m., the department said, adding that it was probably caused by a short circuit in the life support system on the hospice ward.

However, an investigation into the cause of the fire is being carried out, the department said.

Meanwhile all emergency services and outpatient clinics at the MOHW Taipei Hospital have been canceled due to the fire.

(By Sunrise Huang, Lin Chang-shun, Wang Hung-kuo, Ku Chuan and Hsu Hsiao-ling)

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