TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A female Filipino migrant worker was declared dead on Thursday (April 27), making her the eighth employee, and the fourth from the Philippines, to die from a food factory fire that broke out in central Taiwan.
At 6:45 a.m. on Tuesday (April 25), a fire broke out at the Lian Hwa Foods Corp. factory on Sihai Road, Section 1 in Changhua County's Beidou Township. By 10:06 a.m., the fire department had rescued 22 employees, including 12 men and 10 women, and sent them to nearby hospitals.
Ten of the workers had lost vital signs at the scene before they were rushed to nearby hospitals. Of those 10 employees, seven soon died after arriving at the hospital, including four Taiwanese and three Filipino nationals.
On Thursday, Changhua Christian Hospital announced in a press release that an eighth employee from the factory and a fourth Filipino worker had died. The 39-year-old woman initially had no vital signs when paramedics reached her on Tuesday.
However, attempts to revive her with resuscitation methods such as electric shock, intubation, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation were initially successful. She was first sent to Yuanlin Christian Hospital before later being moved to Changhua Christian Hospital.
The hospital stated that during the blaze, the woman had inhaled a great deal of smoke and sustained severe carbon monoxide poisoning. This caused her to suffer from severe brain hypoxic lesions, ultimately leading to multiple organ failures by noon on Thursday.
Her condition continued to deteriorate and her heartbeat steadily slowed. Despite efforts by doctors to maintain her vital signs, she passed away Thursday afternoon.
The day that the fire broke out at the plant was the Filipino woman's first day on the job, according to the hospital.
