Raise fire prevention awareness and escape skills

(HNNN) - In recent times, the number of fires in households has increased in both quantity and damage. In fact, it is necessary to analyze house fires to have synchronous solutions to minimize the number of fires as well as the damage that may occur.

Fire prevention and fighting safety inter-family group model.

Danger lurks

At 5:30 a.m. on May 17, a large fire broke out in a four-story house in Vinh Phuc Ward, Ba Dinh District (Hanoi). At that time, there were a couple, two boys and an old man in the house. Fortunately, the family members were able to escape through the balcony. Witnessing the incident, many people said that it was fortunate that the house had an open balcony. If it had been a "tiger cage" instead, the worst consequences could have happened.

Mr. D.NQ (born in 1984, homeowner) shared that the fire went straight up to the 4th floor, because the house was designed in a tube shape, at that time, saving people was only a matter of seconds. As soon as the fire was discovered, Ms. BTT (born in 1983, Mr. Q's wife) instinctively jumped up and went downstairs with her children to escape, but when black smoke rose, she ran into the bathroom to get a wet towel to cover the faces and heads of her two children and herself, then went out to the balcony on the 3rd floor and climbed over to the neighbor's house...

However, not everyone has the knowledge like Mr. Q and Ms. T to be able to respond promptly to bad situations. The fire that caused great loss of life that occurred a few days ago in Ha Dong district is an example. It is easy to see that with the structure of the tube house, the "tiger cage" balcony is the main reason why the victims have no way out when the fire breaks out and is an obstacle preventing the rescue team from saving people.

According to statistics from the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police Department (Hanoi City Police), there are currently more than 500,000 tube-shaped houses in use in the city and the number will continue to increase. Monitoring the fires that have occurred recently, there is a very notable cause, which is the arbitrary and uncontrolled change of the function of tube houses.

Architect Pham Hoang Phuong (National Institute of Architecture, Ministry of Construction) pointed out that many houses initially had the function of family housing, then changed to new functions such as service shops, rental offices, karaoke bars... but were almost not upgraded in terms of fire prevention and fighting measures. In some cases, there have been adjustments in construction materials, additional fire escapes, but the basic solutions are temporary, unsystematic, and of much lower quality than fire prevention and fighting standards. Therefore, when a fire or explosion occurs in a tube house, the damage is often very large. To overcome this, it is necessary to soon regulate that tube houses, when adding or converting functions, must ensure strict requirements like public works. For places with large crowds and prone to fire and explosion such as factories, karaoke bars..., it is not allowed to renovate or add functions, but must be built and renovated synchronously according to fire prevention and fighting requirements of public buildings.

Open balcony makes escape easier.

Towards fundamental solutions

According to Lieutenant Colonel Do Anh Quyen, Deputy Head of Bac Tu Liem District Police, the cause of tube house fires is primarily due to the deterioration of tube houses or the carelessness of the people. To overcome this, it is necessary to support people in checking and inspecting the quality of construction works, especially technical systems such as electricity and gas lines, as well as propaganda and raising awareness of fire prevention and fighting. Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Hoang Thanh, Head of the Fire Prevention and Fighting Police Team, Thuong Tin District Police, added that the risk of fire spreading from neighboring households is also quite high. Currently, for public works, fire prevention standards and inspection procedures can be considered quite strict. However, for tube houses, especially houses in old urban areas, the management and inspection of fire prevention and fighting content for tube houses built by people themselves is very difficult.

Architect Pham Thanh Tung, Chief of Office of the Vietnam Association of Architects, stated: Balconies of buildings, especially tube-shaped apartments and collective houses, are built with solid "tiger cages" to prevent theft and increase living space, but they are the "weak points" when a fire breaks out. Therefore, it is necessary to raise awareness among families and strengthen supervision and inspection by local authorities.

In a scientific workshop on the above issue recently organized by the Ministry of Construction, experts pointed out that the prominent problem causing great damage in tube house fire accidents is the lack of escape routes and rescue routes for functional units when an incident occurs. To overcome this, in addition to guiding and requiring people to arrange additional escape routes in their homes, propaganda, education and training on self-escape skills and mutual support in case of fire in residential areas for the community is very important. To ensure safety, each floor must have at least one open balcony, without installing iron cages or iron nets on the railings. If installed, there must be an inside latch and no lock. If there is a lock, the key must be hung right next to it, in a visible and easy-to-reach place, and a hammer and axe must be equipped to prevent bad situations. Each house must be equipped with ladders and rope ladders with a length equal to the height of the house to be able to escape when a fire occurs.

Scene of a house fire.

When building a house, it is necessary to pay attention to creating a smoke exit to help the house be airy and quickly release toxic smoke when a fire occurs. Colonel Pham Trung Hieu, Head of the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police Department (Hanoi City Police) recommends that people should not leave many items at the main door or stairs to easily escape in an emergency. For businesses in tube-shaped houses, it is necessary to arrange goods and household items neatly, away from electrical equipment, fire-generating equipment and must have a clear backup exit to avoid unfortunate incidents...

It is known that in recent times, Hanoi City Police have strongly deployed public fire stations, built inter-family fire safety teams, mobilized people to destroy "tiger cages", launched a mass movement for fire prevention and fighting with the motto "4 on-site"... This method has been effective, as recently, at around 3:00 p.m. on June 7, when a fire broke out in a house in alley 153/30, Phu Do ward, Nam Tu Liem district (Hanoi). Immediately after discovering the fire, households in alley 30 quickly used on-site equipment equipped at the "Public Fire Station" to put out the fire. After about 10 minutes of calmly handling the situation, the fire was completely extinguished by the people, preventing it from spreading.

According to Colonel Duong Duc Hai, Deputy Director of Hanoi City Police, the City Police continue to deploy fire prevention, fire fighting and rescue measures, focusing on effectively implementing the model of "Fire Prevention and Fire Fighting Inter-family Team" and "Public Fire Fighting Point" to promote the effectiveness of fire prevention work, minimizing damage caused by fire and explosion.

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