Many schools in HCM City fall short of fire safety standards, putting thousands of lives at risk, according to the city’s Department of Fire Fighting and Prevention.— Photo thtranvankieu.hcm.edu.vn

HCM CITY – Many schools in HCM City fall short of fire safety standards, putting thousands of lives at risk, according to the city’s Department of Fire Fighting and Prevention.

Those schools operate without fire prevention and control systems or have systems in disrepair, the department said.

Even more dangerous, some schools, including Tô Vĩnh Diện, Mầm Non No.2 and Lam Sơn, located around Bà Chiểu market in Bình Thạnh District have no path of escape if a fire breaks out in the school or market.

The city has a number of schools that were not built under school construction standards, with only one exit and no fire prevention and control systems.

Nguyễn Văn Đực, a member of the Việt Nam Construction Association, said that many buildings with only one exit have become language centres or preparatory class centres.

In the first 10 months of the year, the city identified 169 establishments and buildings without safety regulations, including 145 establishments and buildings at high risk of fire, according to the city’s Department of Fire Fighting and Prevention.

A fire that broke out in the Nhân Văn Secondary and High School in Tân Phú District last month raised alarms about poor fire safety standards when it was discovered that the school had not undergone fire safety examinations.

The city’s Department of Education and Training required the leaders of educational institutions to devise plans to train their staff, teachers and students fire prevention skills

Schools should be organising a firefighting drill at least once a year and have complete fire prevention and control systems.

A family of six dies a fire in Cà Mau City in July last year when they could not find their way out of a fire that broke out in a wooden house located behind their home.

In December of last year, six members of another family, including three children one to seven years old, died when a fire broke out in a two-storied house in HCM City.

According to the Department of Fire Prevention and Control, Rescue and Salvage under the Ministry of Public Security, there were more than 3,000 fires in 2016 in Việt Nam, a sharp rise over the 2,800 recorded the previous year. A total of 98 people died.

The fires broke out in warehouses, factories and other sites, but the largest proportion occurred in 1,300 residential buildings. The fires did not break out in only old buildings, but several new, modern buildings were also hit. – VNS