On October 25, the People's Committee of Long An province organized a firefighting and rescue drill with the participation of many forces and vehicles at Building A4 of Ehome Southgate Apartment, Hamlet 2, An Thanh Commune, Ben Luc District, at the scale of the Ministry of Public Security in 2024.
The exercise mobilized more than 1,100 participants and more than 50 firefighting and rescue vehicles of all kinds. Participating vehicles and forces included: Base forces at the building; Police, military, medical and businesses in the surrounding area.
The exercise also had the participation of coordination and support in terms of forces, vehicles, and equipment from professional units and Binh Chanh District Police under Ho Chi Minh City Police.
According to the hypothetical situation, a fire broke out at building A4 of Ehome Southgate Apartment. The building has 12 floors with nearly 200 apartments. The fire started at 2 apartments on the 8th floor of the building and spread to neighboring rooms. The fire emitted a lot of smoke and toxic gas.
At the same time, a fire broke out in the motorbike parking area on the first floor and spread rapidly. At the time of the fire, there were about 300 people in the building.
Thanks to the smooth coordination between forces as well as the effective operation of equipment, the implementation of the fire fighting and rescue drill at the building was very successful.
Speaking at the drill, Colonel Lam Minh Hong - Director of Long An Provincial Police - said that recently, the fire and explosion situation in the country in general and in the province in particular has had many extremely complicated and unpredictable developments.
In particular, fires and explosions in apartment buildings, multi-storey houses, and multi-apartment buildings, when they occur, often cause particularly serious damage to people and property and affect the security and order situation, and socio-economic development in the area.
“Organizing firefighting and rescue drills is very necessary and important. Improving firefighting and rescue capacity and skills is also a task that the Provincial Police always pay attention to,” Colonel Lam Minh Hong emphasized.
Vice Chairman of Long An Provincial People's Committee Huynh Van Son informed that currently, in the province, there are 5 apartment buildings, 2 multi-apartment buildings, nearly 3,000 rental housing establishments and rental service businesses with high population density.
The characteristics of apartment buildings and high-rise buildings are that they often have a large concentration of people, with different ages, awareness, and health, so there is always a high risk of fire and explosion, affecting rescue work.
"Following the trend of urbanization and based on the actual situation, the province requires all levels, sectors, agencies, units, and enterprises to pay attention to implementing fire prevention and rescue work well," Mr. Huynh Van Son emphasized.
