[2] The earthquake killed 106 people, destroyed 10,924 buildings, and caused a great fire in Chiayi City.

[4] It was the most serious historical quake resulting from a rupture in the Chukou Fault (Chinese: 觸口斷層; pinyin: Chùkǒu duàncéng).

Aftershocks meant that residents and firefighters feared to approach the blaze to tackle it, thus letting it spread until it consumed 174 households in central Chiayi.

[4] There was no official disaster management policy in effect in Taiwan at the time – relief and reconstruction was carried out on an ad hoc basis by the military and police forces.

The earthquake forced a rethink of this lack, and the following year the Standard Procedure for Natural Disaster Assistance was promulgated by the Taiwan Provincial Government.