Tainan fire injures 15 and damages 68 homes

By Wang Chieh and Hung Jui-chin / Staff reporters, with CNA Add TT as Preferred Source A fire and subsequent explosion in a residential area in Tainan early yesterday injured 15 people and damaged 68 homes, the Tainan City Fire Bureau said.The bureau said it received a report at 1:12am yesterday that a pile of waste in a vacant lot in Annan District’s (安南) Haidian Road had caught fire and exploded, adding that it dispatched 144 firefighters and 53 firetrucks to battle the blaze and evacuate nearby residents.It took more than four hours to extinguish the fire, it said. Buildings and vehicles damaged by a fire and subsequent explosion in a residential area in Tainan are pictured yesterday. Photo courtesy of the Tainan City Government’s Environmental Protection Bureau The incident damaged 11