| Fiery Blast at Taiwan Water Park |
| By Jiang Meng-qian and Zhang Feng-de; translated by Tang Yau-yang; photo by Zhang Shun-sheng |
On June 27, 2015, flammable colored powder exploded at a recreational water park in Bali, northern Taiwan, injuring nearly 500 young people attending a “Color Play Asia” party. Of the injured, about 240 people suffered burns to more than 40 percent of their bodies. The large number of victims rushed to hospitals stretched burn care units to the limit. Many patients face the ordeal of a long-drawn-out recovery.
At Cathay General Hospital in Taipei, the mother of a male victim saw the Tzu Chi volunteers who had come to the hospital to offer care and help to victims and their families. She said to them, “Thank you! A female volunteer from your group helped my son at the explosion site. Her last name is Ye, but we don’t know her first name.” Her description of Ye led the volunteers to conclude that she was talking about Ye Mei-hui (葉美慧) from Bali, New Taipei City. Ye had rushed to the scene immediately after the explosion. When she saw this man, burned but unassisted, she stayed by his side to cheer him on and to contact his mother on the phone. “The chaos at the scene made it very difficult for people to go in and locate their loved ones,” Ye said, “and there were just too many burned people for ambulances to carry away quickly enough.” The man’s buttocks were burned, so he could not sit. Emergency responders urged him to hang in there. Finally, he boarded a bus for the less severely injured. “Before the bus departed,” Ye said, “I told him, ‘You’ve been brave. You must keep that up on the long road to recovery. Bless you.’” The blast went off at about 8:40 p.m. on that fateful day. As soon as they heard the news, Tzu Chi volunteers living nearby, like Ye, rushed to the scene. Luo Mei-zhu (羅美珠), a Tzu Chi emergency response coordinator in northern Taiwan, immediately alerted her people and asked volunteers living in areas near Bali—Sanchung, Luzhou, and Wugu—to make their way to the site. Many people were burned, and every one of them was hurting badly. Luo hurt with them. “My heart went out to the young people, their wounds in plain sight. I didn’t know who to help first, so I just walked back and forth, checking on them, and I followed the emergency responders’ directions to pour saline solution or bottled water on their wounds to lower the heat of the burns and reduce their pain. We also moistened their lips with a little water,” Luo said. It was apparent that ambulances could not take all the victims to hospital fast enough, “so we asked our volunteers to drive the slightly injured to hospital,” Luo said. “Some young folks were about to pass out, so we talked to them to keep them awake.” Some people’s hands were burned and they couldn’t call their families. Volunteers did that for them. The nearly 500 victims were sent to more than 50 hospitals across Taiwan. Tzu Chi volunteers visited each hospital to deliver emergency cash in the amounts of 30,000, 20,000, or 5,000 New Taiwan dollars (US$930, 620, 155) depending on the severity of the injury. During these hospital visits, volunteers identified families that would need additional assistance. In some cases, the parents had to stop working in order to care for their injured children. In other cases, young men or women who used to work to supplement their families’ finances now had to stop working. Based on this information, volunteers would assess future financial aid or home visits. Through July 21, volunteers had worked 9,209 shifts. Emergency cash had been given to 424 people, further financial aid to four people, and tuition aid to one family. Additional cash was given to the families of those who subsequently succumbed to their injuries. The cash delivered totaled NT$11,476,000 (US$355,530). Hospital visits are on-going. Volunteers have also started visiting victims who have been discharged from hospitals. |
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