On the morning of October 31, at Saigon Centre building (No. 65'67 Le Loi, Saigon ward, Ho Chi Minh City), the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police Department (PC07), Ho Chi Minh City Police coordinated with the Building Management Board and many related units to organize a city-level fire fighting and rescue drill.
According to the hypothetical scenario, the fire broke out on the 5th floor and the B3 basement of the Saigon Centre building due to an electrical short circuit. The smoke quickly spread, forcing thousands of people inside to evacuate. The building's automatic fire alarm system was immediately activated, the fire prevention team mobilized local forces to participate in guiding escape, rescuing trapped people and organizing initial fire fighting.
Immediately after receiving the report, the professional Fire Police force mobilized dozens of vehicles including command vehicles, ladder trucks, rescue vehicles, fire robots, smoke trucks, pumping station trucks, multi-purpose demolition vehicles and ambulances to the scene. In addition, there are also forces coordinating to participate in ensuring traffic, security, order, electrical safety, water resources and medical and rescue work. In total, more than 1,300 people participated in the drill.
Speaking at the drill, Major General Nguyen Thanh Huong - Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Police affirmed that this is a practical, important and necessary activity, both meeting legal requirements and ensuring safety for businesses, people and the community in the context of increasingly many high-rise, super-high-rise and underground works coming into operation. He emphasized that the forces must absolutely comply with the process and command instructions, ensuring the safety of people and vehicles throughout the exercise.
Major General Nguyen Thanh Huong requested the Saigon Centre Management Board to continue to strictly fulfill the responsibility of the leader in fire prevention work; maintain the operation of the grassroots fire prevention and fighting force; regularly review and adjust the plan to suit the reality, while promoting propaganda and mobilizing employees and customers in the building to improve escape skills, implementing the "four on-site" motto.
For the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police force, the Deputy Director of the City Police requested to draw comprehensive experience from the drill, clarify advantages, limitations, and perfect the command and coordination mechanism; continue to invest in and equip modern vehicles, apply advanced technology to improve work efficiency in high-rise and multi- basement projects. He also emphasized the importance of coordinating with the press and media to spread public awareness of fire prevention, fire fighting and rescue, etc.
