HÀ NỘI — Two officials were dismissed from their positions and three others were disciplined with a warning after a karaoke bar fire broke out in Hà Nội’s Cầu Giấy District.

Thirteen people were killed in the fire early last month.

In a report by Cầu Giấy District’s People’s Committee, which was announced on Wednesday, Nguyễn Thị Xuân Nữ, deputy head of the committee’s Culture and Information Department, and Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Ánh, vice chairwoman of Dịch Vọng Hậu Ward’s People’s Committee, were dismissed from their positions.

Trịnh Thị Dung, vice chairwoman of the district’s People’s Committee, Nguyễn Quang Thắng, chairman of Dịch Vọng Hậu Ward’s People’s Committee, and Nguyễn Tiến Huy, an official of the ward’s committee, were disciplined with a warning.

The committee has sent the report to the city’s People’s Committee.

In the report, the district’s People’s Committee admitted to its responsibility in connection with the fire. Local authorities in wards and culture and information departments have subsequently worked to learn from the incident and implement measures to strengthen firefighting and prevention in each ward.

Previously, in November 1, a fire broke out at around 2pm in one of the karaoke bars on Trần Thái Tông Street, killing 13 customers.

The bar was built without any emergency exit on the second floor. As a result, the customers who were hiring a karaoke room could not get out and were killed mostly due to suffocation before being burnt.

Criminal charges have been slapped on three people for violating fire safety rules, including owner of the bar Nguyễn Diệu Linh and welder Hoàng Văn Tuấn.

Linh, 30, was accused of running the facility without a fire safety certificate and Tuấn, 23, allegedly caused the fire while working on an advertising board at the bar.

Lê Thi, Tuấn’s 54-year-old employer faces charges for failing to comply with safety regulations. — VNS