HCMC – Scores of people were injured on Thursday as a big fire erupted at the Vietnam Electricity Towers in Hanoi, which was just extinguished after nearly five hours by hundreds of firefighters and troops.
Inferno at Hanoi twin towers injures scores
By Hoang Son - The Saigon Times Daily
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| A woman looks scared even after she was rescued in a fire at the Electricity of Vietnam Towers in Hanoi on Thursday - Photo: TTXVN |
HCMC – Scores of people were injured on Thursday as a big fire erupted at the Vietnam Electricity Towers in Hanoi, which was just extinguished after nearly five hours by hundreds of firefighters and troops.
The fire broke out at around 16:10 in the basement of the two near-completion towers that are 29 and 33 stories high, sending out billows of dense black smoke visible from several kilometers away. The fire raged on for nearly five hours and was put out by 20:50, terrifying scores of people trapped in the upper floors.
Reporters at the scene said five minutes before the fire was extinguished, all people trapped on the top of the towers were brought to safety. Some 15 people believed to be suffocated by smoke and suffering light burns were rushed to hospital.
As the fire erupted from the basement, all workers failed to find the way out and raced to higher floors while waiting for firefighters and rescuers.
Apart from dozens of firefighters, tens of troops and police forces were mobilized to the scene. Many firefighting vehicles sprayed water into the basement where an electricity transformer is stationed for fear of a heat-induced explosion.
Meanwhile, rescuers approached the buildings from all possible sides, breaking glass windows and using high-performance ladders to bring people down. Three ladder vehicles, including one reaching as high as 52 meters, joined the rescue effort.
Tuoi Tre says 33 people were rescued from the 30th floor after two and a half hours, while a stairway was also cleared to help the trapped people to exit to safety. During the process, rescuers advised the people via mobile phone to head to the northwest side of the building for easier rescue operation.
A medical unit of 18 doctors and nurses was also dispatched to the scene, according to Nguoi Lao Dong.
Rescuers said all the communication and electricity wires inside the buildings were destroyed in the fire.