Many 'big guys' in Nghe An are indifferent to fire prevention and fighting
(Baonghean) - In many large enterprises, crowded business establishments and high-rise apartments, fire prevention and fighting are being neglected. Many apartment buildings have not even been inspected yet before allowing residents to move in, while in recent times there have been a series of fires.
Construction has not been approved yet
Located on Tran Phu Street - one of the central streets of Vinh City, Huong Giang Supermarket is one of the places that is always crowded with people coming and going. Like in markets, due to the concentration of many goods, the risk of fire and explosion in supermarkets is always high, so this supermarket is a facility that must purchase compulsory fire and explosion insurance.
However, for a long time, this was not taken care of by the supermarket management. Meanwhile, inside the supermarket, goods were arranged haphazardly, blocking all escape routes in case of fire or explosion...
Only when the authorities came to inspect recently did the supermarket's leaders agree to buy insurance when requested. Also during the inspection, the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police (Nghe An Provincial Police) discovered a series of violations in fire prevention work at one of the busiest supermarkets in Vinh City.
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| Scene of the Hung Dung market fire (Vinh City) in July 2019. Photo: Archive |
Police said that the supermarket did not regularly inspect and maintain its fire protection systems and equipment. Meanwhile, the supermarket also installed and used electrical wires that did not ensure fire safety. It did not establish a management and monitoring record for fire prevention and fighting at the warehouse. The design and construction of emergency exits, escape routes, and escape stairs were insufficient in quantity, area, width, or did not comply with regulations.
In addition, supermarket staff also arranged goods to obstruct the escape route, violating fire prevention regulations... In response to these violations, Nghe An Provincial People's Committee fined Huong Giang Supermarket more than 82 million VND.
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| Huong Giang Supermarket was found to have many violations of fire prevention and fighting regulations. Photo: Tien Hung |
Not far from Huong Giang Supermarket, another "big guy" in Nghe An, Sabeco - Song Lam Packaging Joint Stock Company, has just been fined 230 million VND by the Provincial People's Committee for disregarding fire prevention and fighting work.
This action was taken after Nghe An Police discovered that the company had organized construction and built a project that required fire prevention and fighting approval without a certificate of approval. In addition, the company also constructed and installed the project in a manner that did not comply with the fire prevention and fighting design that had been approved by the competent authority. In particular, the company also recklessly put the project into operation and use without organizing fire prevention and fighting acceptance.
Apartment building has not yet been inspected for fire safety but has already allowed residents to move in.
Since 2000, due to the urbanization process, Nghe An province has invested in building and putting into use 72 apartment buildings. Of which, Vinh city has 69 apartment buildings; Cua Lo town has 1 apartment building; Dien Chau district has 1 apartment building. These apartment buildings are home to nearly 33,000 people, a not small number.
In recent years, fires and explosions in apartment buildings have occurred continuously throughout the country, causing significant damage to property and human life. However, it seems that these fire and explosion accidents have not made investors pay more attention to fire prevention and fighting.
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| The fire protection system of Bac Vinh Industrial Park was invested in 2000, the fire hydrant is broken and there is no water supply system and fire protection tank. Photo: NH |
In a recent inspection, the interdisciplinary inspection team of Nghe An pointed out a series of shortcomings in fire prevention and fighting in apartment buildings. Specifically, regarding fire prevention and fighting records, one apartment building had not yet been inspected and accepted for fire prevention and fighting before being put into use. That was the 18-storey building, belonging to the Thanh Vinh Apartment and Office Building project, Hung Binh Ward, Vinh City. Another apartment building, although having inspected and accepted for fire prevention and fighting, had not yet completed the remediation of some recommendations from the Fire Prevention and Fighting Police; three apartment buildings had not yet established records to monitor and manage fire prevention and fighting activities.
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| Shop owners sign fire prevention commitment with Vinh City Police. Photo: Tien Hung |
In addition, there are many problems with fire safety conditions that the apartment buildings have not yet met. 6 apartment buildings do not have roads and water sources that are not guaranteed for fire trucks to access easily; 25 apartment buildings have damaged or repaired technical systems during use, leading to fire prevention and fire spread prevention for the building not being guaranteed according to regulations; 24 apartment buildings do not ensure conditions for escape routes, escape guidance systems and emergency lighting; 22 apartment buildings have fire alarm systems that do not meet requirements; 7 apartment buildings are not equipped with automatic fire alarm systems because the buildings are not required to be equipped and are apartment buildings built before 2009.
11 apartment buildings have smoke extraction systems in operation but do not ensure the requirements for smoke protection for the building. 7 apartment buildings collect garbage using garbage chutes that do not meet safety requirements; 6 apartment buildings have fire protection electrical systems that are not connected to the priority source before the main circuit breaker and always have 2 independent power sources supplying fire protection systems; Some facilities do not perform periodic checks on the grounding resistance value of the lightning protection system.
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| In the past 20 years, 72 apartment buildings have been built in Nghe An. Photo: Archive |
In the first 6 months of 2019, the fire situation in Nghe An was complicated. Specifically, there were 31 fires in civilian areas, killing 1 person and causing damage of 6.71 billion VND; 71 forest fires and vegetation fires killed 1 person and burned hundreds of hectares of forest.
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