On Sunday morning, residents in Tan Phu District were frightened to discover that their neighborhood was englufed in smoke.
According to a report by Nguoi Lao Dong, a fire started around 10:30am on Truong Chinh Street in Tan Phu on Sunday, July 22. Locals spotted the blaze at a furniture workshop right next to supermarket Co.opmart Truong Chinh and alerted the district fire department.
The news source shares that workers from the workshop – which specializes in sofa production – and community members made an attempt to extinguish the fire on their own but it was spreading too fast and furiously due to the highly flammable materials present.
The smoke and fire also gave employees and customers of the supermarket a scare, causing quite a commotion on the street as evacuees and onlookers jammed up the scene.
By 12pm the same day, the local fire department was able to control the blaze. According to firefighters, most of the workshop was destroyed but fortunately, there were no fatalities. However, Truong Chinh Street remained congested for a few hours after the fire was extinguished.
Alas, such incidents are not uncommon in Vietnam in general and Saigon particularly, as many local neighborhoods are made up of makeshift houses squished together in hẻms without proper fire safety equipment or even escape routes.
In September last year, a textile company in Tan Phu also caught fire due to neglect. One of Hanoi’s most deadly fires occurred in 2016 at a karaoke parlor after a welder accidentally set a banner on fire. The blaze burnt down the karaoke place, along with four nearby buildings, and claimed 13 lives.
[Photos via Zing]
