HÀ NỘI — South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction, general constructor of the Vĩnh Tân Thermal Power Plant No 4 in Bình Thuận Province, will take responsibility for the fire at the construction site .

Two workers were injured in the incident that occurred on Tuesday.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), Doosan has promised to cover any damages caused by the fire at the Vĩnh Tân 4 Thermal Power plant.

The company also vowed to quickly replace all damaged equipment to ensure construction stays on schedule and cooperate with government agencies to duly compensate the victims who were hospitalised with burns.

The contractor agreed to a review of on-site procedures to prevent future incidents.

Trần Văn Lượng, director general of Industrial Safety Techniques and Environment Agency under MOIT, said that the ministry’s inspection team had completed necessary activities to allow construction to resume on Thursday.

The plant project management board was asked to continue collection of data and permission papers, especially those which allowed staff to work in the area where the incident for investigation purposes.

Electricity of Việt Nam (EVN), investor of the 1,200-MW plant, said an explosion occurred after a fire erupted in a chimney. It took 45 minutes to bring the fire under control. The owner blamed welders working inside the chimney for the incident.

One of the two welders was discharged from hospital, while the other with burns covering 12 per cent of his body is expected to get better soon, online newspaper vnespress.net reported on Thursday.

The plant’s trial operation stopped from February 24. At the time of the incident, there were only workers installing and adjusting equipment near the chimney inside, according to EVN.

The construction of the plant, with total capacity of 1,200MW, officially started on September 2014.

The plant’s first turbine is expected to be put in use in December. — VNS