HCM City – In the last two years HCM City has spent over VNĐ1.1 trillion (US$49 million) to build new facilities and acquire modern technologies and equipment for firefighting.

“HCM City is the leading locality in the country in terms of rescue and fighting and preventing fire thanks to strong instructions from the city Party,” Deputy Minister of Public Security Lieutenant General Bùi Văn Thành said in his opening speech at a conference held yesterday to review the city Party’s resolution on firefighting and emergency rescue since 2015.

The city has approved a master plan for emergency rescue and firefighting for up to 2025, which seeks to make rescue work and firefighting more and more modern.

The city uses many new and modern technologies like early warning fire system, fire surveillance camera network, a digital street map for firefighters, an integrated operation system for emergency numbers 113, 114 and 115, the new 1.7 version of fire truck, firefighting and rescue truck for the tunnel and chemical treatment truck.

However, Thành expressed fears about infrastructure limitations that affect firefighting such as crowded streets and lack of water sources while the downtown area still has a lot of illegal houses built with inflammable materials, long and narrow lanes and houses that double up as shops.

“The most important thing is that the city has over 1,000 high-rise buildings but there are no rescue helicopters.”

To promote efficiency in emergency rescue and firefighting, the city Party Committee urged the city Fire Fighting and Prevention Police Department to speed up the establishment of sub-departments in six districts: Phú Nhuận, Tân Bình, Thủ Đức, Hóc Môn, 5, and 10.

Tất Thành Cang, deputy Party secretary, said “The fire department should closely work with related authorities to tighten management, suggest routes and solutions for removing all workshops that carry the threat of fire and explosions from residential areas, improve the quality of safety education and encourage the movement to involve the public in firefighting.”

In the last two years there were 3,048 fires which killed 32 people, injured 87 others and caused losses of VNĐ375 billion ($16.6 million).

The fire department dealt with 841 of the fires, carried out 445 rescue missions, saved 136 people and collected the bodies of 103 people killed in fires. -- VNS