6 years living next to "fire bait
At noon on a day at the end of 2020, a fire suddenly broke out at the plastic waste recycling and plastic pellet pre-processing facility of Ms. Tran Thi Le Quyen in Long Binh village, Nui Thanh commune, then belonging to Nui Thanh district, Quang Nam province.
Black smoke billowed and covered a sky. The fire lasted nearly three hours before being controlled, many assets inside were burned down. People living next to the facility had to panic and run away for fear of the fire spreading to their houses.
6 years have passed, the insecurity of the people is still there. Piles of packaging and plastic scrap continue to be gathered haphazardly, in some places only a wall away from people's houses. On hot sunny days, the scrap yard is no different from a fire-prone material warehouse located in the middle of a residential area.
A resident said that the amount of asphalt gathered not only has not decreased but also shows signs of increasing. What worries people the most is the risk of fire recurrence, while fire prevention and fighting safety conditions have not been improved.
It is worth mentioning that the inadequacies at this facility are not only limited to fire prevention and fighting.
According to the People's Committee of Nui Thanh commune, Da Nang city, the facility was only approved to use about 660m2 of agricultural land for combined commercial and service purposes. However, the Commune People's Committee determined that the area of arbitrarily changing land use purposes to build factories is up to more than 1,100m2, nearly double the permitted area.
The facility owner was also determined to have encroached on more than 550m2 of land managed by the State to build fences and illegally build works.
In the field of environment, the facility did not arrange a hazardous waste storage area as prescribed; wastewater was determined to exceed technical regulations more than 10 times. Two environmental violations were fined a total of nearly 130 million VND.
Representative of the facility owner, Mr. Tran Van Son explained - the unit only rented this land area to do plastic recycling, and has not found a suitable location to relocate. According to Mr. Son, if moved to another area, production activities may also continue to be entangled in land regulations.
Punish and leave it there?
From February 11, 2026, the People's Committee of Nui Thanh commune requested business household Tran Thi Le Quyen to stop plastic production, recycling, and waste treatment; and at the same time relocate all machinery and equipment because there are not enough legal procedures on land and environmental permits. But so far, the facility continues to operate.
All 3 penalty decisions were issued from December 2025, with a total amount of 95 million VND and requiring remedies within 15 days.
However, more than 7 months later, the facility owner has not yet paid the fine, has not restored the land status and has not dismantled the violating works. Local authorities continue to issue documents urging, adding a deadline for compliance and warning that coercion will be organized if the facility owner continues not to comply.
Recently, inspecting fire prevention and fighting work, Colonel Nguyen Thanh Nam - Head of the Fire Prevention and Fighting and Rescue Police Department of Da Nang City Police - informed that the volume of plastic bags and polymer materials at the facility is very large, while the conditions and fire safety distance are not guaranteed. Therefore, handling measures cannot just stop at reminding or administratively sanctioning and then continuing to let the facility operate. " Facilities that do not ensure safety must be resolutely handled, temporarily suspended or suspended from operation" - Colonel Nam affirmed.
A leader of Nui Thanh commune said that the locality is continuing to urge the facility owner to comply with the sanctioning decisions, pay fines, restore the land status and dismantle the violating works. If the facility owner does not comply, the government will complete the dossier and organize enforcement. The locality's point of view is to handle the case in accordance with legal procedures, and at the same time not to let production activities cause fire safety, environmental pollution and prolonged impact on people's lives.
