The Draft Law on Fire Prevention, Fire Fighting and Rescue has a separate Article regulating fire prevention for houses combined with production and business, supplementing more fully and appropriately the provisions for this type, ensuring requirements on safety conditions for fire prevention, fire fighting and escape.
On the morning of August 14, continuing the program of the August 2024 legal thematic meeting, under the direction of Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Quang Phuong, Standing Committee of the National Assembly give opinions on explaining, accepting and revising the draft Law on Fire Prevention, Fire Fighting and Rescue.
Reporting at the meeting, Chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee Le Tan Toi said that the draft Law was discussed and commented on by the National Assembly at the 7th Session, with 107 comments in groups and 17 comments in the hall.
Based on the opinions of the National Assembly deputies, the Standing Committee of the National Defense and Security Committee presided over and coordinated with the drafting agency and relevant agencies to organize research, explanation, acceptance, and initial revision of the draft Law. Compared to the draft Law submitted to the National Assembly at the 7th Session, the revised draft Law has 61 articles (4 articles reduced due to revision and merging of similar provisions).
Assign the Government to prescribe a roadmap for handling facilities that do not ensure fire prevention and fighting safety.
Regarding fire prevention for houses, some opinions suggest adding separate regulations on safety conditions. fire protection and prevention for facilities, houses, individual houses, especially houses combining production and business, accommodation, high-rise buildings, apartment buildings, large urban centers.
There is a proposal to separate this Article into two articles regulating fire prevention and fighting for residential houses and houses combined with production and business; at the same time, supplement regulations and breakthrough solutions in fire prevention for this type, especially houses combined with production and business.
In response to the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the Standing Committee of the National Defense and Security Committee coordinated with the drafting agency to study and separate this content into two articles, Article 18 on fire prevention for residential houses and Article 19 on fire prevention for residential houses combined with business; at the same time, supplemented more fully and appropriately the provisions for these two types in the draft Law that had been received and revised, ensuring the requirements on safety conditions for fire prevention, fire fighting, and escape.
Regarding the transitional provisions, Mr. Le Tan Toi said that this draft Law has redesigned the transitional provisions, separating an Article on handling facilities and constructions that do not meet fire prevention and fighting requirements and are put into use before the effective date of this Law (Article 58), and an Article on the transitional provisions (Article 61) only regulating cases where the Law on Fire Prevention and Fighting No. 27/2001/QH10 or the Resolution of the People's Council of the province or centrally-run city must be applied.
Based on the review and assessment of the current difficulties and problems of constructions that do not ensure fire prevention and fighting safety, the Provincial People's Committee classifies, compiles and publishes a list of facilities and constructions that do not ensure fire prevention and fighting requirements at the time of putting into operation and are unable to be remedied according to current technical regulations and standards or technical regulations and standards at the time of putting into operation in the management area.
The Ministry of Construction Management, in accordance with the provisions of the law on construction, is responsible for presiding over and coordinating with the Ministry of Public Security to prescribe technical solutions to improve fire prevention and fighting safety for works that do not meet fire prevention and fighting requirements under its management authority.
The head of the facility shall, based on the current state of architecture, structure, function, equipment, and production line, select appropriate technical solutions to enhance technical solutions to ensure fire prevention and fighting safety and shall be responsible for the implementation results. For works and facilities that cannot apply alternative technical solutions, the function must be converted to suit the scale and nature of the operations of the works and facilities.
In response to the National Assembly deputies' comments requesting to clearly stipulate in the draft Law the time and roadmap for handling facilities and constructions that do not meet fire prevention and fighting requirements, the Standing Committee of the National Defense and Security Committee coordinated with the drafting agency to supplement Clause 6, Article 58 of the draft Law that had been received and revised, and assigned the Government to stipulate a roadmap for handling to ensure flexibility and feasibility during implementation.
Stricter regulations on fire prevention and fighting in high-rise apartments
Giving his opinion at the meeting, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man also agreed to separate a provision on handling constructions that do not ensure fire prevention and fighting and are put into use before the law takes effect, as stipulated in the draft Law.
The National Assembly Chairman mentioned the recent occurrence of several major fires that killed and injured many people, to make the assessment that the fire and explosion situation is becoming more complicated and there are still many shortcomings in fire prevention and fighting.
“This work is of great concern, but at the local level, are the facilities still lax and have not strictly handled cases of houses combined with businesses that violate fire prevention and fighting regulations, or construction works that do not have emergency exit systems, fire prevention and fighting systems, or if they do, they cannot be used?”, the National Assembly Chairman raised the issue.
Emphasizing “prevention is key”, the National Assembly Chairman said that when a fire breaks out, it is very difficult to put out the fire. Especially in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, there are many high-rise apartment buildings that often have fires and explosions, but the problem is that there are no high ladders to put out the fire. “When approving the number of floors, we must ensure that there are fire ladders for that many floors. If a 15-floor fire ladder is invested in 20-25 floors, then… there is no way to put out the fire,” said the National Assembly Chairman.
Agreeing with the above viewpoint, Chairman of the Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh also said that it is necessary to supplement regulations related to fire prevention and fighting in high-rise apartments. While there are no fire-fighting helicopters and fire ladders only reach the 20th floor, according to Mr. Thanh, there should be different requirements for newly built apartments to prevent incidents from occurring, but when incidents occur, they are very difficult to fix.
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