Firefighting police officers are guiding house owners
Colonel Huynh Quang Tam, Head of the Department of Fire and Rescue Police in Ho Chi Minh City, had a talk with a reporter from Sai Gon Giai Phong Newspaper upon related issues.
Of approximately two million households in the southern metropolis, more than 300,000 household owners turn out their houses into a firm or a production facility where the occurrence or possibility of fire and explosion is high.
Therefore, police have advised the People's Committee to issue Decision 16. This is a breakthrough decision, creating an important legal corridor in fire prevention and fighting work for individual houses and houses used as firms or production facilities in Ho Chi Minh City.
According to Decision 16, a house used as a firm or production establishment must have a second emergency exit outside the house, or ladders connecting floors, or emergency exits such as exits through the balcony, the terrace.
Houses with terraces must be well ventilated and have access from the lower floors through fixed ladders. If there is a door lock between the floors, it must be designed so that the door can be easily opened from the inside. The house’s main door must use a hinged door. Houses with balconies must be well ventilated. In case people want to use rolling doors, sliding doors, iron nets to protect their property, they must commit to taking responsibility for fire prevention and fighting.
In addition, warehouses where store flammable goods and materials must be separated from emergency exits at floors by non-combustible or inflammable materials. In case the first floor (ground floor) is used for production and business, the emergency exit is not less than 0.8m.
According to regulations, a three-story house must have at least 3 fire extinguishers ( one fire extinguisher on each floor). Each house should be equipped with at least one fire extinguisher on each floor. Fire extinguishers must be located in an easy-to-see and easy-to-reach place.
According to Decision 16, owners of houses, which have been used as a place to live and as a company must promise to complete the above-mentioned requirements within six months.
People's committees in districts are responsible for disseminating this regulation to the people. Moreover, local administration must pay regular inspections to households giving guidance to people.
