Firefighter accepts burns, rushes into fire to put out restaurant explosion
(Baonghean.vn) - After the explosion, the fire fighting force quickly arrived at the scene. Nearly 80 soldiers and 7 vehicles worked hard for more than 3 hours to completely control the fire.
Revealing the cause of the restaurant explosion in Nghe An
(Baonghean.vn) - Witnesses described the explosion as "like a bomb", while authorities initially determined that the cause of the explosion may have been an industrial gas cylinder used in a hot pot restaurant.
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| Authorities mobilized 7 vehicles and more than 80 officers and soldiers to fight the fire. Photo: Tien Hung |
“At that time, the fire quickly broke out, and the glass along the road exploded. The gas covered a large area,” Lieutenant Colonel Hung recalled. After witnessing the scene, he immediately reported to the leader to request permission to mobilize all forces. All vehicles including 2 fire trucks, a water truck, a pumping station truck, a fire command vehicle, and 60 soldiers of Fire Police Department No. 1 quickly arrived.
Immediately afterwards, Colonel Nguyen Huu Cau - Director of the Provincial Police and Colonel Ho Sy Tuan - Director of Nghe An Fire Police promptly arrived to direct.
Lieutenant Colonel Hung said that when the force arrived, the fire was raging fiercely, black smoke covered the entire kitchen area, where the gas system supplied fuel to the hot pot restaurant and tended to spread to the surrounding area. At that time, there was a high possibility of a gas tank explosion, the gas and the fire were at risk of spreading to many neighboring areas if there was no reasonable and timely strategy.
The scene of the explosion was a 2-storey building that operated a karaoke restaurant, a hot pot restaurant and an electronics supermarket with a total usable area of nearly 1,200 m2. The building contained many flammable materials and substances such as gas cylinders, foam mattresses, fabrics, plastics, rubber, etc.
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| The explosion left many people living nearby shocked. Photo: Tien Hung |
Normally, this building has about 50 employees. At the time of the explosion, in the kitchen area of the hot pot restaurant, there were 8 industrial gas cylinders connected together. In addition, there were 10 other gas cylinders in the storage warehouse. Just a few minutes after the explosion, gas from these industrial gas cylinders leaked, causing the fire to burn very quickly and strongly.
“Realizing that the gas was too heavy, while the building could explode at any time, the first thing I did was to forbid soldiers from bringing in their phones, not smoking, and to block off the scene, not allowing people to get close to avoid danger,” said Lieutenant Colonel Hung. Traffic police were also mobilized to divert vehicles to other roads, avoiding this area.
After that, the soldiers divided into 3 working groups: a team to investigate the fire and search and rescue; a team to fight the fire and prevent it from spreading to neighboring areas; a team to cool and dismantle the building structure to move the industrial gas cylinders to a safe area to avoid further explosions.
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| Glass fragments scattered after the explosion. Photo: Tien Hung |
At this time, Lieutenant Colonel Hung also reported to the Board of Directors to request permission to send 16 more soldiers from the Fire Fighting and Rescue Guidance Department and 2 fire trucks. This brought the total number of leaders and soldiers participating in the fire fighting to more than 80 people and 7 vehicles.
After hours of searching, the reconnaissance team tasked with rescue and relief did not find anyone but quickly saved some valuable assets in the building such as safes. "At that time, the leaking gas cylinders were burning brightly. After about 30 minutes of cooling, we were able to move the first gas cylinder out to a safe area," said a soldier in the team. While transporting the gas cylinders, many soldiers were burned, causing their protective clothing to also catch fire. After more than 3 hours, the team was able to transport 15 gas cylinders out, avoiding the risk of gas explosions and multiple gas cylinder explosions. "If we had not transported them out in time, we could not predict what the consequences would have been," said Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Duc Hung.
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| Industrial gas cylinders in the restaurant are transported outside. Photo: Tien Hung |
By 3:25, the fire was completely extinguished. After continuing to cool the building, 20 minutes later, the fire brigade recovered the vehicles and handed over the scene of the explosion to Vinh City Police. During the course of their duties, some officers and soldiers had their legs and arms severed by construction structures and broken glass.
Initially, authorities determined that the explosion did not cause any human casualties because at the time of the incident, the entire service system was closed. Meanwhile, the security guard had just left the building to have a late-night snack. Authorities are also calculating the property damage, but initially recorded that all buildings within a 100-meter radius of the explosion were affected. Some houses had broken glass and collapsed ceilings due to aftershocks....
The explosion was determined to have originated from the BBQ King hot pot restaurant located in the building. The initial cause was determined to be that the restaurant staff may have forgotten to turn off the main valve of the system of 8 industrial gas cylinders serving the restaurant.
