Wake Up Call
March 31, 2008
By: thenhbushman
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Category: News
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Photo by MJ Klein
Hui-chen and I were awakened out of a sound sleep by an explosion. The next day I found out what happened:
A gas bottle had exploded inside this restaurant.
If you think this looks bad, you should see the rear. The owners have been on site like hawks, and prevented me from photographing the rear, but every piece of glass is gone. The door was blown out, and even the rolldown door is gone. It looks frightening. No one seems to know what happened (or they just won’t talk about it). Every year there are several such gas explosions in Taiwan but mostly they are caused by a faulty water heater.
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March 31st, 2008 at 9:54 pm
That is scary. I hope no one was hurt.
Carrie’s last blog post..A Remote Border Crossing in Cambodia and Vietnam
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April 1st, 2008 at 1:13 am
MJ. That is some damage.
It also happens here in Thailand. Many Thai style kitchens have gas bottles inches away from deep friers and cooking stations an so forth. It is an explosion waiting to happen. Regulations seem non existant or complience doesn’t exist.
Late last year a girl who was 12 was badly burnt when the gas tank next to a cooker exploded in a restaurant she was working. She copped the brunt of it and the chef also but not as bad. The cause, a leak from the hose. They had only changed the bottle just before the expolsion.
Yesterday, there was an article in a Thai paper about a truck filling its NVG gas tank exploded injuring 7 people. The article said many things could be the cause such as; inferior material of the tank, over filling the tank, a leak and so forth.
But when you see people filling gas tanks, petrol tanks and they haven’t shut the motor of the car off, standing and smoking within arms reach of a petrol pump these things will happen.
Gas, petrol are things that have to be treated with great respect as when things go wrong it could mean dire consequences.
Brunty’s last blog post..Booking a holiday. Thailand.
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April 1st, 2008 at 11:16 am
Brunty, on Taiwan, we talk about the legendary Taiwanese indifference to danger. i’m afraid that in Thailand it’s even worse because Thais don’t ignore danger. Thais don’t know danger when they see it. that being said, pretty much nothing surprises me.
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April 1st, 2008 at 11:17 am
Carrie, i’ve heard nothing about anyone being hurt. one just never knows.
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April 1st, 2008 at 12:27 pm
More eventful things in the Bushman world. Makes me wonder how safe things are at my place, as my apartment uses bottled gas.
Brunty, I worked for a month or so at a petrol station in Sydney many years ago, and the owner used to pull his car up to the pump, start filling it with the engine running and then wander away to do something else - leaving the petrol pumping, the engine on and the car blocking the lane so all the paying customers.
cfimages’s last blog post..Yangmingshan National Park
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April 1st, 2008 at 12:54 pm
cfimages » this is a definite danger that lurks everywhere in Taiwan. when coupled with the Legendary Taiwanese Indifference to Danger, anything can happen. the explosion woke me out of a sound sleep but the dogs didn’t even bark. what also bothers me is the lack of concern in the neighborhood. i guess it’s not their “fate” to blow up.
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April 7th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Someone must have eaten a lot of beans.
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