Schools and offices were closed on that day and residents were asked to leave their houses to smooth out the search and rescue operations.

[20] To help the city in the rescue efforts, at 22:30 on Friday night the Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) shut down their four sets of generators fed with liquid natural gas, even though none of their pipelines had been damaged during the explosions.

The decision to stop the supply was reached after a discussion between the Kaohsiung City Government and the oil refinery CPC Corporation, so that road repair and other disaster relief work could proceed without interruption.

[23] The rescue works attracted many passerby to watch, wander, or even for an "adventure date" in conjunction with Chinese Valentine's Day, a move considered disrespectful for the dead.

[25] On 5 August, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutor's Office issued the death certificates of two missing firefighters who had fought the fires caused by the gas explosions, despite their bodies having yet to be found.

[28] The Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch, acting as the Director of the Central Emergency Operation Center, suspected that the explosions were caused by a propene leak, and the firefighters could not extinguish the fires with water.

[34] During a press conference on Sunday at the Taiwan Stock Exchange in Taipei, LCY said that it was the responsibility of CPC to design and check the gas pipes.

LCY claimed they first detected abnormalities when the propene supply completely ceased at 8:49 p.m and returned to normal half an hour later.

According to Kaohsiung's top environment official, though, 3.77 metric tons of gas had leaked already between 20:00 and 21:00, and the pipe system was only shut down at 23:40 – just 16 minutes before the explosion.

To better investigate the causes of the accident, KDPO also invited domestic metal and petrochemical experts to the blast areas to collect evidence.

[38][39] During his inspection of the damage in Kaohsiung, Premier Jiang Yi-huah, ordered the Taiwanese national flag to be flown at half-mast for three days starting 5 August to commemorate the victims of the gas explosions and also the TransAsia Airways Flight 222 crash a week before in Penghu County.

[41] Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu said that schools and offices in the affected districts were closed the day after the explosion to facilitate search and rescue.

[49] Public reactions towards the government have been largely negative, criticizing what was seen as a slow response by the authorities to stop and isolate the gas leak after it was first reported.

[51] Kaohsiung city authorities responded to these criticisms by saying that had residents been evacuated prior to the explosions, there may have been even more fatalities, since most of the injured or dead were those on the roads at the time of the incidents.

[21] The Kuomintang caucus of the Kaohsiung City Council sued Mayor Chen Chu for negligence that led to loss of life.

[52] The Democratic Progressive Party caucus responded by filing a lawsuit against former Kaohsiung mayor Wu Den-yih, for "illegitimately" allowing the pipelines to be buried.

[41] Dozens of hotels around Kaohsiung offered temporary free lodging, laundry and washroom facilities for the people who were left homeless after their houses were damaged by the blast.

[73] The Ministry of Health and Welfare has been providing services to hold counseling to help residents to go through posttraumatic stress disorder by mobilizing medical personnel and social workers to the affected district areas.

Some people were also caught on camera pretending that they were the explosion victims or taking turns in group to get the donations several times more than what they were supposed to get.

The bureau added that the city government will give tax reductions for the affected stores and will construct temporary paths to allow access to the areas without roadworks, and businesses could also apply for social aid.

Trenches created from the blasts were flooded and water flow was blocked due to the damaged sewage, culverts and drainage system.

[83] Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Woody Duh said that the ministry would set up a system soon to help check the underground pipelines and build a database for safety management in the future, starting from Kaohsiung and followed by other cities, municipalities and counties.

Great Taipei Gas had earlier inspected the site and found no immediate danger, adding that the firm had sealed the leaks and plans to change the pipes.

[86] Few days after the blast, Premier Jiang Yi-huah appointed the Ministry of Economic Affairs to gather and sort out Taiwan's entire underground petrochemical pipeline network information and to establish a management system to avoid similar accidents from happening in the future, adding that such a management system would help local governments to determine which petrochemical pipelines need to be relocated and which ones can stay in place.

[87] On 6 August, Premier Jiang Yi-huah and Economic Affairs Minister Chang Chia-juch came under fire and were asked to step down by demonstrators after Jiang's "Three Noes" remarks on 4 August stating that there were no need for a special provision bill, financial assistance through special budget allocation, and a dedicated agency to administer post disaster relief and reconstruction for Kaohsiung.

Mayor Chen said that Kaohsiung City Government had frozen firm assets and properties worth around NT$1.9 billion as a precautionary measure.

[89] On 7 August, in order to take the responsibility for the blast, Kaohsiung City Deputy Mayor Wu Hong-mo, Water Resources Bureau Director Lee Hsien-yi, Public Works Bureau Director Chen Tsun-yung and Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit Bureau Director Chen Tsun-yung tendered their resignation, a move which Mayor Chen praised and that she approved and stated that the resignation would take effect after the relief works ended.

[28] In the evening, the Ministry of Economic Affairs issued a statement saying that Minister Chang Chia-juch and Deputy Minister Woody Duh had also tendered his resignation earlier at 10 a.m. to the Executive Yuan due to the difficult political environment as a result of persistent boycott by opposition parties over several economic policies in the past 1.5 years.

Lee bowed his head to apologize to the families of the blast victims, promising them that the company would provide good financial compensation to them.

[94] President Ma Ying-jeou, who also attended the event, commended the soldiers and firefighters who risked their lives in saving life of the people.