The mini apartment building that caught fire in Khuong Ha did not comply with construction design.

Mr. Vu Ngoc Anh, Director of the Department of Science, Technology and Environment ( Ministry of Construction ) said that he personally went to the scene of the mini apartment fire. Through inspection, he assessed that this apartment building is 9 stories high, 1 attic is all welded with tiger cages, some tiger cages have emergency exits. In this apartment building, some houses are equipped with rope ladders, some houses are not, so it is difficult to escape to the neighbor's house in case of fire.

" To ensure fire safety, the investor must comply with the original design of the building. While the construction permit granted to the investor of the mini apartment building that just caught fire was a permit to build a 6-storey, 1-attic single-family house with a construction density of 70%, the investor built 9 floors, 1-attic with a construction density of 100% ," said Mr. Ngoc Anh.

According to Mr. Ngoc Anh, leaving a skylight in the mini apartment building that just caught fire is also very dangerous, because when it catches fire, smoke rises very quickly.

Mr. Ngoc Anh also said that although mini apartments are not yet included in the set of standards and regulations for apartment buildings, these buildings have all the characteristics of an apartment building, with shared stairs, shared corridors, common property, and private property. Therefore, they must be designed for fire safety according to apartment building regulations.

Ministry of Construction informs about the mini apartment fire in Khuong Ha.

Therefore, according to fire prevention and fighting regulations, this mini apartment building must comply with Decree No. 79/2014/ND-CP (2014), Decree No. 136/2020/ND-CP (2020) guiding the Law on Fire Prevention and Fighting. Accordingly, this project is subject to approval of fire prevention and fighting regulations.

In addition, according to regulations, the stairs of mini apartments must be placed in a closed elevator shaft, smoke and fire cannot spread to ensure the safety of residents to escape in case of an incident. To ensure fire safety in mini apartments, in case the investor cannot install a second emergency staircase outside the building, a fireproof wall must be installed and built for the stairs in the building.

“ The fire escape stairs in the building must have a separate exit so that in case of fire, people can escape safely. However, through inspection, the mini apartment building that just caught fire had many factors that did not ensure fire safety ,” said Mr. Ngoc Anh.

The representative of the Ministry of Construction also noted that mini apartments must comply with the installation of two stairs, an inside staircase and an outside staircase. The escape route must go through a safe corridor. But the apartment building that just caught fire did not have a second staircase outside the building and there was no space to arrange a safe corridor to exit to the second staircase. When going down to the first floor, there was no safe corridor to go outside.

Immediately after the serious fire, Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Tran Sy Thanh issued a telegram to strengthen fire prevention and fighting for multi-apartment houses (commonly known as mini-apartments). The Chairman of the City People's Committee assigned the Chairmen of the People's Committees of districts, towns and cities to organize a general inspection and review of 100% of facilities, multi-apartment houses, and rental houses in the management area, especially mini-apartments.

Previously, in 2020, the Ministry of Construction sent a document to localities warning about the "chaotic" situation of mini apartments.

Specifically, according to this Ministry, in some localities in urban areas, there has been a situation where households and individuals have taken advantage of lax management by authorities to arbitrarily build multi-storey, multi-apartment houses (called mini apartments) without complying with legal regulations.

Violations of illegal construction, illegal construction, construction against planning, encroachment on space, subdivision of apartments, arbitrary addition of floors... and free buying, selling, and transferring lead to many consequences regarding fire prevention, social technical infrastructure, and breaking planning.

Ngoc Vy

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