14 injured, 3 critically by CO2 leak at wind farm site

Taipei, Aug. 20 (CNA) Three people are currently in critical condition following a carbon dioxide (CO2) leak at an on-shore construction site for an offshore wind farm in Changhua County Tuesday morning that hospitalized 14.

According to the Changhua County Fire Bureau, the leak occurred as workers were filling 200 cylinders with CO2.

First responders found three workers in cardiac arrest at the site Lungong North 8th Road in Lukang District, in the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park, the bureau said.

Doctors had to resuscitate one of the three, a man surnamed Chien (簡), whose heart had stopped beating, according to the Tungs' Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital in Wuqi District, which treated three of the 14 injured workers.

A spokesperson for the hospital said that Chien is currently undergoing treatment.

The other two injured workers treated at the Taichung hospital were a man surnamed Wang (王) with lacerations to the head who arrived at hospital at 11:34 a.m. and a man surnamed Pan (潘), both aged 58.

Pan, who was comatose upon arrival, has regained his consciousness and is now being treated for inhalation of unknown substances, the spokesperson said.

Personnel with the Changhua County Fire Bureau said they received a report at around 10 a.m. of the industrial incident at the construction site, where workers were constructing a voltage reduction station.