Nghe An mobilizes people to open a second escape route and dismantle tiger cages to prevent fire and explosion.

Still a potential risk

Recently, the People's Committee of Nghe An province has directed the relevant agencies to focus on synchronously and drastically implementing measures to improve the effectiveness of state management of fire prevention and fighting. Especially for apartment buildings, multi-apartment houses, rental service businesses with high population density, houses for residence combined with production and business with high risk of fire and explosion.

Accordingly, the province has directed the establishment of over 100 inspection teams to review 4,289 establishments (including 83 apartment buildings, 2,912 boarding houses, 1,294 houses combined with production and business). The inspections have promptly pointed out the risk of fire and explosion, causing loss of fire prevention and escape ability...; at the same time, guiding urgent solutions to ensure fire prevention and rescue safety during operations. Resolutely handle violations and do not completely overcome existing violations of fire prevention and rescue.

However, according to the relevant authorities, through inspection, there are still shortcomings and violations such as: electrical systems and equipment do not ensure fire safety; not arranging enough escape routes; not having suitable solutions to prevent fire spread; not fully equipped with fire prevention means and equipment...

In addition, most of the apartment buildings have been handed over by the investor to the Management Board and handed over the 2% maintenance fund to be used for the management and operation of the apartment building, but after a period of operation, the maintenance fund has been used up; some apartment buildings were handed over to the Management Board before the time when there were regulations on deducting maintenance fees from the construction investment fund (before July 1, 2006)... Some management boards and management boards of apartment buildings often work part-time, their management and operation capacity is still limited, therefore, fire prevention and fighting work has not been as effective as expected.

The rental facilities are mainly small-scale, have been built and put into operation for a long time, spontaneously, because the construction time was not subject to licensing, arbitrarily changed the purpose of use of the building, did not have a business license, built in violation of the construction license or built without a license, leading to failure to ensure escape routes, prevent fire spread and fire safety conditions.

Some lodging establishments have owners who are not regularly present in the locality, so it is difficult to arrange and schedule time to conduct inspections, provide guidance and handle issues. The tenants are mainly students who are not fully aware of the meaning and importance of fire prevention and fighting; they do not participate in training and instruction on fire prevention and fighting skills despite being informed and encouraged to participate...

From the beginning of 2023 to now, the whole province has had 204 large and small fires, although there were no human casualties, the property damage was about 27.3 billion VND.

For example, on the night of March 19, a fire broke out at the auto repair shop of Mr. Phan Duc Lam's family (37 years old) in Sao Nam hamlet, Xuan Hoa commune (Nam Dan). The fire was discovered at 9:45 p.m. The fire started from the electrical panel and spread to the plastic cans containing engine oil, causing the fire to flare up and become difficult to extinguish. With the active rescue of local people and fire prevention forces, the fire was completely extinguished at around 12:00 a.m. The fire burned many items and tools in the front room of the garage, in particular, the truck of Mr. Lam's family parked in the garage was burned, causing damage of about 200 million VND.

Recently, in the early morning of November 1, residents of the Green View 2 apartment building, No. 2 Hoang Nghia Luong Street, Le Loi Ward (Vinh City) were in a panic when a fire alarm was reported. According to a resident of the apartment building, he had just opened the door to jog when he saw smoke rising and the security guard calling on the fire alarm loudspeaker. Then, people were frantically calling for each other, then rushing down the stairs. Fortunately, just a few minutes after arriving, discovering the incident in the electrical engineering room between the first and second floors of the apartment building, the local fire prevention force and the Fire Police promptly handled the situation.

Every household has at least 1 fire extinguisher.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Dinh Hanh - Deputy Head of the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police Department of the Provincial Police, said: Currently, the Provincial Police are focusing on guiding facility owners on a number of solutions, specifically: For existing works and facilities, it is allowed to apply feasible measures to overcome existing shortcomings and limitations in fire prevention and fighting, such as creating a second emergency exit; having solutions to separate parking areas, areas with high risk of fire and explosion from residential areas and escape routes; equipping fire prevention and fighting means and equipment to ensure fire and explosion prevention and minimize damage and consequences caused by fire and explosion. For new construction works, it is recommended that local competent authorities strictly control compliance with legal regulations on construction, fire prevention and fighting, etc.

At the same time, in order to overcome some difficulties and problems, the Provincial Police have reported and proposed to the Ministry of Public Security to provide specific instructions on maintaining the budget for management and operation of apartment buildings, fire prevention and fighting work, purchasing compulsory fire and explosion insurance periodically every year and maintenance and repair of fire prevention and fighting systems... to ensure suitability for apartment buildings that the investor has handed over to the Management Board and apartment buildings where residents elect their own Management Board.

Coordinate with the Ministry of Construction to provide guidance on synchronous solutions to remove difficulties and obstacles in construction and fire prevention for facilities that arbitrarily change the purpose of using construction works, construct against construction permits, or construct without permits...

Propose that competent authorities promptly issue standards, regulations or issue documents guiding technical solutions to remove difficulties and obstacles, ensuring fire safety for individual houses with many floors, many apartments, and rental service businesses with high population density suitable to the new situation...

This is also the direction in Official Dispatch No. 9668/UBND-NC dated November 10, 2023 of the People's Committee of Nghe An province on strengthening fire prevention and fighting. In particular, the Provincial People's Committee requests: The Provincial Police, People's Committees of districts, cities and towns to strengthen inspection and examination work, combine propaganda and guidance on urgent solutions to minimize the occurrence of fires and explosions and damage caused by fires and explosions, ensuring the safety of health, life and property of people at the grassroots level. The People's Committees of districts, cities and towns continue to closely follow the direction of the Government and the Provincial People's Committee in implementing fire prevention and fighting and rescue solutions in residential areas in the area, continue to strongly promote the movement "My house has a fire extinguisher" in the area, striving for each household to have at least 1 fire extinguisher by December 31, 2023.

Organize propaganda and inspections for 100% of residential areas, households, houses for living combined with production and business in the area (to be completed before December 31, 2023). Review, propagate, and mobilize households and businesses to open a second escape route, dismantle tiger cages to meet escape requirements when a fire or explosion occurs. Continue to review and replicate the Fire Safety Inter-Household Group model, ensuring that 100% of houses for living combined with production and business of flammable and explosive goods and adjacent to each other in the area participate in the Fire Safety Inter-Household Group. Review alleys and lanes with high population density (households, houses for living combined with production and business, old boarding houses, collective houses...) with a length of 50m or more that fire trucks cannot access according to the residential area to continue to deploy and replicate the model of "Public Fire Fighting Point".