HCM CITY – The Carina Plaza apartment building will be repaired three months after a fire that killed 13 people on March 23, according to a representative of the building owner Hùng Thanh Ltd Company.

The Carina apartment was partially damaged after the fire, according to the Ministry of Construction’s Construction Management Sub-Department.

The HCM City Construction Department said that Hùng Thanh Ltd Company submitted an application for repair on June 18.

It is expected that a repair license will be issued to the company next week.

Trần Quang Hải, director of Hùng Thanh Ltd Company, said that he would complete the repair of the apartment complex within 45 days.

"After that, we will ask government units to check the work before inviting residents to return to their apartments, " Hải said.

"The time to fulfill estimated procedures of acceptance and inspections after repair will be about 30 days."

Representatives of the city’s Department of Construction, however, plan to ask the Ministry of Construction to shorten the time period for procedures so that people can return home sooner.

On March 23, a blaze, caused by a motorcycle in the parking basement of the Carina building, broke out and killed 13 people, with 11 of them dying of smoke inhalation and two jumping out of windows or from balconies

Around 90 people were injured and had to be hospitalised. The fire destroyed 150 motorcycles and five cars, and caused damage to another 10 cars.

City authorities on March 26 said the investor of Carina Plaza had not properly followed fire-safety regulations.

Many items of firefighting equipment that are required by law in such buildings were not present, and the fire alarms and sprinklers did not work, they said. — VNS