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On October 29, 2002, a large
fire broke out in Saigon downtown, the former capital city of South Vietnam.
The blaze quickly swept through other parts of the 5-story International Trade
Center (ITC, formerly known as Crystal Palace or Tam Da Trade Building) killing
scores of people.
Communist
officials assert that only 60 victims were killed, among them two Britons, one
Croatian Singaporean and one Vietnamese American. But according to information
from many people in Vietnam sent to friends overseas the deaths may be more
than one hundred and dozens of bodies were burned beyond recognition.
It's
the worst calamity ever happened in the last 27 years since the Communists came
to power in April 1975. ITC is not a large building but there are 170 small
shops and offices including 27 foreign business offices, a disco and a dancing
club. The American Insurance Agency is one of them. The Communist government
has not announced estimated property losses.
Different
sources reported that at least 500 visitors, shoppers and workers were in the
building when fire started and spread quickly to other parts of the building.
They were trapped in crowded rooms and halls, unable to escape because all
elevators were inoperable as electricity was cut off when the fire started. The
whole building has only one stairway for emergency exit.
The
trade center was built in the early 20th Century, rebuilt in the
early 1970s. After the Communist forces took control of the city in April 1975,
they renovated the center to house business offices. Renovation and repartition
on the inside without due consideration for public safety have rendered the
building cramped and hindered victims from escape, as reported by the article
in the party-controlled newspaper Nhan Dan.
The
inferno creates a great shock to the Vietnamese people, particularly in Saigon.
The shock is so strong that the top leaders in Hanoi have immediately rushed to
Saigon to show their concerns at some ceremonies and services in memory of the
victims. The Communist government is providing monetary assistance to the
victims quicker than in other similar incidents.
The
catastrophe broke out at about 1:45 p.m. as the three welders accidentally set
fire to inflammable building material while working on the ceiling of an
office. Two of them and three others were detained and they are facing severe
punishment as the city government could probably make them the scapegoats.
Actually,
fire could happen anywhere at any time. The problems lie at proper prevention
measures and the capability of the firefighters and their equipment. The ITC
fire reveals to foreigners surprising facts that have existed for decades under
the Communist regime.
In
the ITC inferno, fire fighters and engines arrived at the scene nearly an hour
after the initial fire alarm. The ITC is about two kilometers from the main
fire station and the Saigon Fire Department Headquarters. It takes fire trucks
no more than 15 minutes even in rush hours to reach the ITC straight from the
main fire station. Both are situated on the same avenue, the broadest of Saigon
(Le Loi, the upper section and Tran Hung Dao, the lower).
According
to the Communist authorities reported in government-owned newspapers, 71 fire
engines, 450 firefighters, 665 members of the Police Department, 305 soldiers
not including ambulances and paramedics, were participating in the fighting.
But the blaze was not controlled until 6:30 p.m. and rescuers could enter the
building at 8:00 p.m.
City
authorities admit in the newspaper report that firefighters are working without
fireproof garment and other reliable protecting outfits. They don't have any
ladder that can reach fifth floor. Neither do they have other primary rescuing
gear. Water pumps are too weak.
They
also admit that firefighters were at a loss of what to do. They say that in the
training courses, firefighter brigade has conducted many fire drills, one of
which took place at a site close to the ITC. But the drills are mostly
impractical, they acknowledge.
In
the last two decades, the Saigon Fire Department has proved itself incapable of
responding timely to fire alarms in the city. In one of such incidents in the
late 1980s, the Saigon TV station suffered heavy loss with the film archives
burned out completely while fire engines had to get water from the Saigon River
instead of running water from nearby trickling hydrants.
Before
April 30, 1975, fire departments in all South Vietnam cities were operating the
better way. Fire engines were sent to any place where fire lookouts detected a
sign of fire without waiting for alarms from the locality or decision by the
department chief. Since 1975, everything has changed. It takes time to get a
decision to sent firefighters and engines to any place after an alarm is confirmed.
The
most serious problem is the inadequacy of modern equipment. The Communist
government does not have a considerable budget for firefighting. However, they
have spent lot of money – several million dong equal to many thousand
dollars - in cities like Saigon to buy firefighting gadgets such as pails,
buckets, wooden or bamboo ladders, shovels, hooked poles, in order to hold
colorful, noisy reviews and parades of the so-called people's firefighting
force. Young men in the neighborhoods have to participate in the ceremonies.
But in most times when a real fire broke out, they couldn't react efficiently.
They wasted much time to get those rudimentary tools if they still existed.
The
Communist leaders pay little care about human lives while fighting the war.
That may be the reason why they have not much concern about public safety.
Their
soldiers do not have the habit of pointing their firearms upwards in non-combat
situations. In traffic accidents when a
victim collapses at the middle of the street that is the boundary between the
two districts, traffic cops from a district at the street corner sometimes
wouldn't care about the happening, not first aid either. They always pass the
buck to others whenever possible.
In
accidents occurred near the front gate of a hospital exclusively serving the
ranking party members, unprivileged victims were not given first aid, however
much critical their conditions might have been.
Rumor
in Saigon has it that scores of victims reached the flat roof waiting for help.
The Communist 7th Military Region Headquarters turned down the
request for lifting up the victims by helicopter; a dozen of those flying
machines were seen parking at the headquarters.
The
facts of life under the Communist regime remind South Vietnamese people of the
Vietnam War era. Helicopter units of the South Vietnamese Air Force and of the
U.S. Army Aviation often joined in
firefighting or rescuing victims of fires and floods at civilian authorities'
requests. Such missions were given priority higher than normal military
operations. They saved thousands of lives in the 1964 great deluge along the
coastal districts of Central Vietnam and in devastating fires, especially one
that ravaged a poor neighborhood in Saigon in 1969.
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