Poor safety system blamed for twin towers fire

>> Hanoi twin towers on fire

An official from the Hanoi Fire Prevention and Control Department told Tuoi Tre the project management board and the contractors have failed to ensure fire safety during construction of the twin towers that was nearing completion.

“The contractors have also breached the fire prevention and fighting law,” To Xuan Thieu, deputy head of the department, said.

At 4:30pm on December 15, a four-hour fire broke out in the basement of one of the twin towers of the Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN) at 11 Cua Bac, Ba Dinh District, injuring 24 workers who were working on several floors of the building.

On December 16, the Hanoi Fire Prevention and Control Department and relevant agencies examined the twin towers to detect the causes of the fire.

An official said the inspection process would last for at least five days.

Nguyen Xua Vien, head of a team in charge of painting at the two buildings, said the fire could have been caused by sparks from welders working at the basement.

The fire broke out at a location 15 meters from the basement door, he said.

No fire-fighting system

Thieu said the twin towers had yet to be equipped with any fire fighting system.

There were only a few fire extinguishers at the basements, while none could be found on the floors, he said.

“The whole buildings even have no water and fire alarm system,” he said.

“The contractors should be held responsible for this poor condition.”

Another shortcoming was the shortage of respirators and oxygen cylinders.

“We even do not have enough [oxygen] supporting equipment for the firefighters, let alone the victims,” Thieu complained.

Worse, the Hanoi City lacks fire fighting and rescuing equipments, he added.

Hanoi currently only has 52-meter ladder trucks which are capable of reaching the 18th floors at most.

The capital cannot deploy 72-meter ladder trucks since no roads in the city are capable of enduring these 80-ton trucks.

“Hence, in most of the fire breakouts, we have to depend mostly on the on-the-spot extinguishing equipments.”

Regarding some suggestions that Hanoi should use helicopters in rescuing tasks, Thieu said in the case of the twin towers, there was no demand for helicopter supports.

Even when helicopters were deployed, they would not be of much help since the buildings on fire must have landing pads for the rescuing aircrafts, he said.

He added that the Hanoi Fire Prevention and Control Department had proposed to buy fire-fighting helicopters. But the aircrafts will not arrive to Vietnam until 2020.

According to EVN, the twin towers have been under construction since 2007 with a total investment of VND570 billion ($27.1 million), and they are in their final stages before being put into operation.