Sixth firefighter dies in hospital, one week after factory fire in northern Taiwan

北部工廠大火一周後，第六名消防員在醫院死亡

The death toll from the fire in Taoyuan's Pingzhen District has risen to eight, after young firefighter Lin Weixi passed away on the evening on May 6


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Following the April 28 fire in Taoyuan, Taiwan that took the lives of five firefighters and two migrant workers, a sixth fireman, who was rescued from the blaze, died due to injuries after a week in the hospital.

Lin Weixi (林尉熙) passed away on the evening of May 6, after a week in intensive care.

He suffered serious lack of oxygen to his brain during his time trapped in the factory, and according to reports, Lin never regained consciousness after being taken to the hospital.

He was taken to Taiwan Landseed Hospital in the early morning of April 29 in critical condition after his rescue from the fire that erupted at the Chin Poon Industrial Co. (敬鵬工業) factory in Taoyuan’s Pingzhen district.

Providing the best equipment and physicians the hospital could offer, Lin’s vital signs were stabilized within the first few hours of his admittance, and it was hoped he would successfully begin recovery. However, hypoxia of the brain continued to cause Lin’s condition to worsen.

Lin’s death raises the death toll of the factory fire to eight.

Liberty Times reports that the firefighters who entered the factory did so because they were searching for a shift worker who was assumed to be trapped inside, although it was later discovered that the worker they were searching for had not gone into work that day, and failed to contact his employer to tell them he was not in the factory.

Lin had agreed to be an organ donor before his death, and his organs are expected to go to four different individuals awaiting transplants, reports UDN.

Currently one firefighter, Lu Zongyu (呂宗郁), remains in the hospital’s intensive care unit.