A blast at a burning pile of dumped waste in Tainan's Annan district wrecked homes and displaced families, and the city is now moving fast on cleanup, cash aid and legal action against whoever dumped the trash.

• An empty lot full of burning waste exploded, badly burning 11 homes and damaging 102 more.
• Army troops were brought in and worked through the rain to haul away debris; 21 people from 8 households are staying in a community center and a temple.
• Damaged households get emergency cash right away, with the largest payments going to homes hit by the fire and smaller per-floor amounts for blast damage nearby.
• Tainan's mayor, Huang Wei-che, says the city will back residents in a group lawsuit and seek to freeze the assets of those who piled up the waste, while prosecutors run a criminal case.
• Fault is murky: the lot was covered by a three-way agreement between the landowner, the district office and the local neighborhood office, so who was responsible for upkeep is now a legal question.

Outlook: Investigators are collecting metal fragments and burn residue for lab testing to pin down what caused the blast, and the city plans tighter checks on other adopted vacant lots.