A migrant worker from Vietnam died on Tuesday when a pile of slag — a volatile by-product of metal production — he was working with exploded at a steel mill in Kaohsiung, authorities said.
The Kaohsiung Fire Bureau said it responded to a call at around 2 p.m. about a workplace accident on Yongguang Street in the city’s Xiaogang District, and arrived to find a 41-year-old Vietnamese national dead at the scene.
The man, an employee at the district’s Hai Kwang Enterprise Corp. steel mill, was using an excavator to crush slag when it exploded, engulfing his vehicle in flames before he was able to flee, according to the city’s Labor Affairs Bureau.
A preliminary investigation determined that the explosion may have been caused by the contact of hot slag with water, the bureau said, adding that it had ordered operations at the facility to be suspended.
The labor bureau said it was providing assistance to the man’s family, and would refer the employer to the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office for an investigation into possible workplace safety violations.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel