Image copyright EPA Image caption The fire was believed to have started in a patient ward

At least nine people have been killed in a fire at a hospital in Taiwan, state media has reported.

The fire broke out on a ward on the seventh floor of the hospital in New Taipei City early on Monday.

About 16 other people, including patients and staff, remain in a critical condition.

The cause of the fire is not yet clear, though media reports say it could have been started by an electrical fault in a moveable bed.

Reports say 33 patients and three staff members were evacuated from the Weifu hospital in the northern region of the city after a fire broke out at 04:36 on Monday (20:36 GMT Sunday).

Image copyright EPA Image caption 16 people remain in critical condition

According to state media outlet CNA, police found that the ward was not equipped with "required smoke exhaust equipment".

The BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei says fires are common in Taiwan where fire prevention measures are not strictly enforced.

In 2012, a hospital fire left 12 patients killed and at least 60 more injured.</s>TAIPEI: A fire at a hospital in northern Taiwan on Monday (Aug 13) left nine people dead and 15 injured.



The fire happened around 4.36am in Xinzhuang, New Taipei City. Authorities said the fire started in a patient ward on the seventh floor. There were 32 patients on the floor at the time, Xinhua reported.



Photos posted onto Facebook by the New Taipei City Fire Department showed the blaze engulfing at least two rooms in the hospital. 



AFP said that the hospital was a hospice for the terminally ill.

The fire was extinguished almost one hour later, with over 200 firefighters and 76 fire engines deployed.

Bed-ridden patients were evacuated out of the building following the fire.</s>TAIPEI – A fire at a hospital in Taiwan in the early hours of Monday killed nine people and injured many more and an investigation has been launched into the cause of the blaze, authorities said.

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Premier William Lai said the health ministry was overseeing rescue efforts at the hospital in New Taipei City, where the fire was extinguished shortly after dawn.

The fire broke out on the 7th floor of the building, which was used for hospice care.

Media footage showed patients being wheeled out of the building in their hospital beds, while medical workers took others out on stretchers and into ambulances.

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Scores of ambulances lined up outside the hospital waiting to take victims to medical centres.

Lai said lessons had to be learned by every hospital in Taiwan.

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“In the event of a repeat incident, it’ll help to limit the impact to a minimum,” Lai told media.

President Tsai Ing-wen, on a stop-off in the United States on Monday on her way to visit two of Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic allies, Belize and Paraguay, expressed grief for the dead and hopes for the injured, the government said.

— Reporting by Jess Macy Yu and Taipei bureau Editing by Robert Birsel</s>TAIPEI - A fire broke out early Monday (Aug 13) on the seventh floor of a hospital in Taiwan's New Taipei City, killing nine and leaving 16 injured.

Six of them are in serious condition, reported Taiwanese media.

The fire broke out at 4.36 am and was put out at 5.37am, after 76 vehicles and 208 firemen were sent to the scene..

Firefighters said there were a total of 32 patients, two caregivers, one nurse and eight migrant workers on the seventh floor, which housed a senior care centre.

The fire was believed to have started in Ward 7A23, where four patients and one migrant worker were staying.

Local residents reportedly heard loud bangs. CCTV footage reportedly showed that the water sprinklers failed to work when the blaze started,

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. A faulty motor of a hospital bed is believed to have caused the fire, reported local media.



 Fire inspectors viewing the damage after a fire broke out in Taipei Hospital, on Aug 13, 2018. PHOTO: EPA-EFE</s>Taipei, Aug 13 (IANS) Nine people were killed and 16 injured as fire engulfed a hospital in Taiwan’s New Taipei City on Monday, officials said.

The incident took place on the seventh floor of the Weifu hospital, in Xinzhuang district, where over 200 firemen evacuated dozens of patients, but at least nine of them were dead before reaching other hospitals, Efe reported.

Some witnesses said they heard the sound of an explosion before the start of the fire.

A statement from the Office of Disaster Prevention of the Taiwanese Ministry of Health and Welfare said that 33 patients, two employees and a nurse were rescued.

The fire started in a building of the Weifu Hospital and 76 rescue vehicles and some 276 firefighters were deployed to the scene to control the fire, which was extinguished within an hour.

The victims were transferred to the Yadong, Xintai, Hulong, Beima and Fudan hospitals.

The cause of the fire is still unknown and the police of New Taipei have initiated an investigation.</s>TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - A fire at a nursing home in Taiwan early Monday left nine people dead and 16 injured.

Authorities were still investigating the cause of the blaze that broke out before 5 a.m. and was extinguished roughly one hour later.

No details were immediately available about those who had died, although the fire department said 10 of the injured were in serious condition.

In this image from a video, firefighters try to extinguish fire at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare in New Taipei City, Taiwan Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. The fire broke out in the early hours of Monday morning, killing several people. (EBC via AP)

The nursing home attached to Taipei Hospital had 32 patients on the ward, along with 11 nurses, helpers and foreign caregivers.

In this image from a video, patients stay outside of Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare in New Taipei City, Taiwan following a fire Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. The fire broke out in the early hours of Monday morning, killing several people. (EBC via AP)</s>In this image from a video, patients stay outside of Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare in New Taipei City, Taiwan following a fire Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. The fire broke out in the early hours of Monday morning, killing several people. (EBC via AP) less

In this image from a video, patients stay outside of Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare in New Taipei City, Taiwan following a fire Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. The fire broke out in the early ... more

In this image from a video, firefighters try to extinguish fire at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare in New Taipei City, Taiwan Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. The fire broke out in the early hours of Monday morning, killing several people. (EBC via AP) less

In this image from a video, firefighters try to extinguish fire at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare in New Taipei City, Taiwan Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. The fire broke out in the early hours ... more

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A fire at a nursing home in Taiwan early Monday left nine people dead and 16 injured.

Authorities were still investigating the cause of the blaze that broke out before 5 a.m. and was extinguished roughly one hour later.

No details were immediately available about those who had died, although the fire department said 10 of the injured were in serious condition.

The nursing home attached to Taipei Hospital had 32 patients on the ward, along with 11 nurses, helpers and foreign caregivers.</s>Aug. 13 (UPI) -- At least nine people died and more than a dozen were injured by a hospital fire in Taiwan Monday, authorities said.

The fire started on the seventh floor of the government-run Ministry of Health and Welfare Taipei Hospital in New Taipei City. Fire officials believe it was likely caused by an electrical failure in a life support system.

The New Taipei Fire Department said also said a caregiver noticed an electrical spark in a portable bed, followed shortly by flames throughout the hospital ward.

There were 32 patients on the floor when the blaze started, a firefighter said. It was extinguished within an hour and patients were transferred to other hospitals.

The hospital said patients, nurses and other caregivers are among the dead. Some medical workers helped patients escape, while others climbed to the roof to be evacuated by cranes.

The New North District Inspection Office, the police force in the city's Weifu district, has started an investigation.

Six years ago, 13 people died in a hospital fire in southern Tainan.</s>NEW TAIPEI CITY, Taiwan — An early morning fire raged through a hospital floor filled with elderly patients Monday morning in Taiwan’s largest city, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens more.

The fire broke out around 4:30 a.m. in a room for patients with chronic or long-term illnesses at the government-run Taipei Hospital in New Taipei City. Within an hour, firefighters had extinguished the blaze. But nine people died, while at least 26 others were taken to other hospitals, said Kolas Yotaka, a spokeswoman for Taiwan’s Parliament.

“The cause of the fire is still being investigated,” she added.

There were 32 patients on the floor when the fire broke out, according to a hospital statement.

While the rescue efforts seemed to go smoothly, some officials raised concerns about how the fire was able to spread so quickly in such an environment.</s>Nine people were killed and 16 were injured in a blaze that broke out early Monday morning at a hospice in Taiwan, fire officials said.

All of the 36 people inside, including three staff, were evacuated after the fire started in the palliative care facility on the seventh floor of the nine-storey Ministry of Health and Welfare Taipei Hospital in New Taipei City.

Sixteen had cardiac arrests and seven were revived. Smoke inhalation was given as the cause of death for the nine people who died, according to the local fire service.

The city’s fire service chief Huang Te-ching said the cause of the fire was being investigated and denied reports that the sprinkler system had malfunctioned.

“The sprinkler device was on but there’s some distance between its location and where the fire started so the fire couldn’t be immediately put out,” he told reporters.

Central News Agency, said citing the fire service, that a foreign carer reported a spark on a bed in the hospice ward at 4:36am on Monday, but by the time emergency crews arrived, the fire had spread throughout the ward.

The blaze was extinguished at 5:27am, the department said, adding that it was probably caused by a short circuit in the life support system on the hospice ward.

Footage from a surveillance camera broadcast on local media showed staff rushing through the hospice corridors, carrying patients out in their arms or in wheelchairs to evacuate them after the fire broke out.

The injured were rushed to several nearby hospitals.

The 16 injured remain in hospital, with 10 listed as being in a serious condition, the local TVBS news network reported.

Local media quoted some patients’ relatives as saying they heard a blast and suspected that an oxygen tank might have exploded, causing the fire.

Taiwan’s Premier William Lai apologised to the public and expressed condolences over the tragedy.

“We will review the cause of the incident to prevent a similar situation from happening again,” he said.
Nine people are killed and 16 others injured after a fire breaks out in a ward on the seventh floor of a hospital in New Taipei City, Taiwan.