Warning of fire and explosion risks in residential and commercial properties
(Baonghean.vn) - Recently, many fires have occurred causing great damage to people and property in residential areas, households, especially houses for living combined with production and business in many provinces and cities, including Nghe An, which has really sounded the alarm bell in fire prevention work.
Many terrible fires
Although more than 15 days have passed since the fire broke out.At Fill Tea Room, many people on Dinh Cong Trang Street, Vinh City are still shocked when mentioning it. Because in just a moment, the fire took the lives of 6 members of two families here.
It was around 0:00 on June 15, when people discovered smoke and fire coming from theFill Tea Room, address 146, Dinh Cong Trang street and called the fire department. Upon receiving the news, many fire trucks and dozens of officers were dispatched.
Although the fire was controlled and completely extinguished, the authorities discovered the bodies of 6 deceased victims during the inspection of the scene after extinguishing the fire (including 4 people in a family, including husband, wife and 2 children, were found in a bedroom on the first floor; a mother and child who rented a room were found in a room on the third floor).
Recently, on July 1, a flower shop on Nguyen Van Cu Street also caught fire. Fortunately, the owner escaped through the fire exit on the 2nd floor.
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| Scene of the fire at Fill tea room, address 146, Dinh Cong Trang street, Vinh city. Documentary photo |
Not only in Nghe An, previously in many provinces and cities across the country, similar fires have continuously occurred, causing many deaths. Typically, the fire that occurred at around 00:50 on June 5 at a 3-storey house which is a business establishment for consulting, designing and trading electrical appliances (Chanh Lo ward, Quang Ngai city) caused a fire that killed 4 people in the family, including husband, wife and 2 children.
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| The fire at a flower shop at around 2:48 a.m. on July 1, 2021, at No. 73, Nguyen Van Cu Street, Vinh City, fortunately did not cause any casualties. Photo courtesy. |
More tragically, another fire occurred on the afternoon of May 7, at a 3-story house in alley 47 Lac Long Quan Street, District 11, Ho Chi Minh City, also causing 8 deaths. It is known that the owner of this house used the house to produce candles, which contained many flammable materials and ingredients, causing the fire to break out quickly, spreading throughout the entire building. According to the authorities, most of the victims died from suffocation and fire, lying in many places in the house.
Previously, at around 0:30 am on April 4, a fire broke out at house number 311 Ton Duc Thang, Dong Da district, Hanoi, killing all four members of a family. The house where the fire broke out was used by the family to sell baby products (diapers, milk...) for children and had only one entrance and exit, the main door.
According to statistics, in the past 2 months, there were 344 fires nationwide, killing 27 people, injuring 37 people, and causing property damage estimated at 39.4 billion VND. Of these, 44/344 fires involved houses used for both residential and commercial purposes (accounting for 12.8%), killing 21 people, injuring 3 people, and causing property damage estimated at 5.6 billion VND.
In Nghe An alone, in the first 6 months of 2021, there were 36 fires and explosions; in residential areas, households, and houses combined with production and business, there were 26 cases (accounting for 72.2%), causing 6 deaths.
Need to improve awareness and situation handling skills
Back to the fire at Fill Tea Room at 146 Dinh Cong Trang, Vinh City. Immediately after the fire broke out, the Director and Deputy Director of the Provincial Police in charge of the field were present at the scene to direct. The Ministry of Public Security also approached the scene, directing the professional units of the Provincial Police to urgently investigate and clarify the cause of the fire.
Analyzing the scene, Colonel Nguyen Minh Khuong - Deputy Director of Department C07, Ministry of Public Security said: At the location of the bedroom on the first floor when the rescue team approached, the victims' posture was still as if they were sleeping, proving that the whole family did not know there was a fire and gradually passed out due to inhaling toxic smoke. As for the location of the bathroom on the third floor where the mother and child were found renting a room, the two victims tried to find a way out, but the fire was so big that it blocked the only exit on the third floor, so the mother and child ran into the bathroom to defend themselves and gradually passed out.
Through the investigation at the scene, the authorities also said that because there was no automatic fire alarm in the house, the people present in the house did not detect the incident. By the time people discovered the fire, it was too late. On the other hand, flammable objects were placed blocking the escape route. In addition, when the fire broke out, the electrical system was not working, so all the rolling doors of the house were locked, making it difficult for the victims to escape as well as the rescue work of the fire department.
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| Director of Nghe An Provincial Police Department was present to direct the scene of the fire at Fill tea room. Photo: Document |
The reality of the fire at Fill tea room at 146 Dinh Cong Trang, Vinh city, as well as recent fires across the country shows that the current situation of housing combined with production and business is posing many issues that need to be discussed in fire prevention work.
According to statistics, Nghe An province currently has 21,485 houses for residence combined with production and business. With such a large number of establishments, to ensure the effective implementation of the peak period of propaganda and inspection of fire prevention and fighting safety for residential areas, households, houses for residence combined with production and business, the Provincial Police has directed the local Police to advise and guide the People's Committees of communes, wards and towns to establish interdisciplinary teams to organize inspections, combine propaganda and guidance on fire prevention and fighting safety for the subjects.
Thereby promptly detecting 2,154 shortcomings and violations; sanctioning 28 violations with a total fine of more than 25,000,000 VND.
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| Training and fostering fire prevention and rescue skills for people. Photo: PCCC |
However, through actual inspection, many obvious shortcomings were also discovered such as: in residential areas, houses are often designed and built in the form of adjacent tubes, close together, not ensuring safe distance for fire prevention and fighting, no backup escape routes, no solutions to prevent fire spread.
In particular, due to business needs, the renovation and conversion of residential housing into business is taking place quite commonly and openly, but the requirements for fire prevention and control for this work are still inadequate and there is no appropriate solution. It is more dangerous for houses that combine production and business, with many furniture and goods, placed close to power sources and heat sources, not to mention piled up in front. If a fire occurs, it will not only block the escape route but also risk the fire spreading faster, at the same time causing many difficulties for the authorities to access in time to put out the fire, rescue, and rescue...
In line with the direction of Major General Le Quoc Hung, Deputy Minister of Public Security at the online conference to review 2 months of implementing the peak period of propaganda and inspection of fire prevention and fighting safety for residential areas, households, houses for living combined with production and business, taking place on June 18.
The Provincial Police also advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue guidelines on fire prevention, fire fighting and rescue measures for individual houses and houses combined with production and business in residential areas. These include specific instructions on fire prevention and fighting equipment; escape conditions; how to arrange the premises, arrange items and goods to ensure fire safety; install and use electrical systems and electrical equipment to ensure fire prevention and fire safety; instructions on how to escape in case of fire...
Most recently, on June 22, the Provincial People's Committee issued Plan No. 342/KH-UBND on Mobilizing forces, means, and assets of agencies, organizations, households, and individuals to handle large-scale, complicated fires, incidents, and accidents in Nghe An province.
In addition to assigning specific tasks to each level of the industry, it also clearly states that "When a fire, accident, or incident occurs in any agency, organization, unit, or locality, the head of that agency, organization, unit, or locality is responsible for operating and commanding the firefighting, rescue, and initial rescue work; has the right to mobilize forces and means of agencies, organizations, enterprises, households, and individuals within their management scope to participate in firefighting, rescue, and relief work."
Thus, in addition to close direction from all levels and sectors, functional forces need to actively propagate and remind, and at the same time conduct inspections and strictly punish violations.
On the people's side, it is necessary to raise awareness of voluntarily complying with fire prevention and fighting regulations, equipping necessary fire fighting and fire alarm equipment, as well as skills to handle situations when fire and explosion incidents occur...