HANOI: A Vietnamese court jailed eight people on Friday (Mar 14) over a fire that tore through a Hanoi apartment block in 2023, killing 56 in the country’s deadliest blaze in two decades.
The building had only a single exit and no emergency ladder on the outside and neighbours and residents reported hearing screams as people struggled to escape the flames through barred windows.
The owner of the nine-storey block deserved “the most serious punishment” for the blaze in September 2023, the verdict said, convicting him of violating fire prevention regulations and giving him a 12-year term.
However, victims’ relatives said the sentence should have been longer.
Families were prevented from talking to the media outside the courthouse. One crying woman who was shouting that the sentence was not fair was pushed away.
“I am not happy with the verdict,” said Le Van, whose brother, sister-in-law and their child were killed in the blaze.
“They should be punished even more for what they have done to us,” she told AFP by phone, fighting back tears.
The couple’s other child survived, she said, but had been forced to leave the capital to live with relatives in the countryside.
The actions of the apartment block owner Nghiem Quang Minh were “very dangerous”, the verdict said, “causing especially serious consequences in human lives and material damage”.
One of the four sides of the building, which was down a narrow alley in a densely populated area of the capital, had no windows at all and another had only tiny ventilation slots.
“Among those dead and injured were several children and people of the same family, causing huge pain,” the court said.
Minh was ordered to pay a total of more than US$900,000 to the victims’ families and survivors.
Seven local officials were also handed jail terms, ranging from 30 months to seven years, for “lack of responsibility causing serious consequences” after failing to report the owner’s wrongdoing properly.
EXTRA FLOORS AND ROOMS
The government ordered a nationwide check of fire prevention systems in “mini apartment” blocks and other densely populated rental accommodation in the wake of the disaster.
Vietnam has a population of 100 million people, a third of whom live in tightly packed urban areas.
To meet the demand for housing, Vietnam legalised in 2014 small apartment blocks – known locally as “mini apartments” – which are mostly built by private individuals and either rented to low-income and migrant workers or sold off.
According to the indictment cited by state media, Minh illegally changed the design of the building to make it three floors higher and with 12 extra rooms.
The illegal changes were reported while the building was under construction and Minh was fined but the officials involved did not report the wrongdoings to their superiors, state media said.
All 45 apartments in the building were reportedly sold by 2016. Fire prevention violations were flagged again in the years leading up to the fire but no appropriate changes were made.
The blaze was the deadliest in Vietnam since October 2002, when a fire killed 60 people at the International Trade Centre in Ho Chi Minh City.
Vietnam has experienced several serious fires in recent years, many at entertainment venues including karaoke bars.
