Nghe An's prolonged heat wave causes firefighting equipment market to 'heat up'

In June and July 2019, many localities in the province had consecutive house fires such as in Vinh City, Yen Thanh, Thanh Chuong, Ky Son, Dien Chau.

Although there were no casualties, many properties were burned down. Therefore, the provision of fire prevention and fighting equipment (PCCC) is of concern to people, especially in the ongoing hot weather conditions.

People looking to buy fire protection equipment. Photo: Quang An

Currently, households in Vinh city are also looking to buy fire prevention equipment, especially those living in high-rise apartment buildings. They said that although the apartment management board is currently equipped with fire prevention systems, the homeowners must also equip themselves with additional equipment in case of a sudden fire to handle it promptly.

Fire prevention and fighting equipment is consumed strongly such as fire extinguishers, gas masks, rescue ladders, etc. Photo: Quang An

A shop owner selling labor protection equipment in Vinh city said: Fire protection equipment is the most "picky" item to buy among all protective equipment because people are still subjective in fire prevention and fighting. However, in the past month, people have started to buy more, in which medium-sized fire extinguishers are the most chosen, besides, escape equipment is also consumed more strongly.

Although the demand for fire protection equipment is increasing, fire protection equipment stores in Vinh City are still quite fragmented and small. They are mostly concentrated on Phan Boi Chau Street, a few are located on Ngu Hai Street, Le Mao extension and some retail points.

In districts, fire prevention and fighting equipment is often concentrated at labor protection equipment sales points in towns in quite small quantities.

Fire protection equipment must have full labels and stamps from the fire police. Photo: Quang An

Firefighting equipment is currently very diverse in design and price, of which the most popular are fire extinguishers, priced from 250,000 - 500,000 VND/bottle depending on size; gas masks to protect the nose and mouth cost 55,000 VND/piece; protective masks covering the head cost 400,000 - 500,000 VND/piece, rescue ladders cost from 70,000 - 90,000 VND/meter... Most items have stable prices despite increased purchasing power.

A worrying thing nowadays is that people are looking to buy fire protection equipment due to crowd mentality, but they still neglect to thoroughly research the origin and instructions for use of the product.

Current fire protection system installation model. Photo: Quang An

In fact, in the current market, besides Vietnamese products, there are also many product models imported from countries such as China, Taiwan, Japan... but on the product packaging there are no instructions for use or the labels are Vietnamese, leading to users not knowing how to read and translate the correct instructions for use, most of them rely on the store owner for instructions. This is extremely dangerous when dealing with situations that require agility and urgency.

In addition to equipping fire protection equipment, fire fighting and escape skills in case of fire are also important. Companies that buy, sell and install fire protection equipment need to instruct customers on how to use it specifically, because currently the number of people who do not know how to use fire extinguishers and have not been trained in escape skills is not small.