Ministry of Construction speaks out after mini apartment fire in Hanoi

Regarding the particularly serious fire that occurred on the night of September 12 at a mini apartment building in alley 29/70, Khuong Ha street (Khuong Dinh, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi), Director of the Department of Science, Technology and Environment (Ministry of Construction) Vu Ngoc Anh emphasized that this mini apartment building did not comply with the original design of the building.

Through inspection, the mini apartment building above has many factors that do not ensure fire safety. When a fire breaks out, many residents have to risk their lives by jumping onto the roof of a neighbor's house to escape.

“Dark spots” that cause fires and deaths

Informing the press, Mr. Ngoc Anh said that he had personally gone to the scene of the mini apartment building fire. Through inspection, he noted and assessed that this apartment building is 9 stories high, with 1 attic, all of which are welded with tiger cages, some of which have emergency exits in case of fire. However, in this apartment building, some houses are equipped with rope ladders, while others are not, so it is difficult to access and escape to the neighbor's house in case of fire.

To ensure fire safety, the investor must comply with the initial design of the building. While the construction permit granted to the investor of the mini apartment building that just caught fire was for a 6-storey, 1-attic single-family house with a construction density of 70%, the investor built 9 floors, 1-attic with a construction density of 100%.

According to Mr. Ngoc Anh, leaving a skylight in the mini apartment building that just caught fire is also very dangerous, because when it catches fire, smoke rises very quickly.

According to Mr. Ngoc Anh, although mini apartments are not yet included in the set of standards and regulations for apartment buildings, these buildings have all the characteristics of an apartment building, with shared stairs, shared corridors, common property, and private property; therefore, they must be designed for fire safety according to apartment building regulations.

Therefore, according to fire prevention and fighting regulations, the mini apartment building that just suffered a serious fire must comply with Decree No. 79/2014/ND-CP (2014) and Decree No. 136/2020/ND-CP (2020) guiding the Law on Fire Prevention and Fighting. Accordingly, this project is subject to approval of fire prevention and fighting regulations.

In addition, according to regulations, the stairs of mini apartments must be placed in a closed elevator shaft, so that smoke and fire cannot spread to ensure the safety of residents in case of an accident. To ensure fire safety in mini apartments, in case the investor cannot install a second emergency staircase outside the building, a fireproof wall must be installed and built for the stairs in the building.

“The fire escape stairs in the building must have a separate exit so that in case of fire, people can escape safely. However, through inspection, the mini apartment building that just caught fire had many factors that did not ensure fire safety,” said Mr. Ngoc Anh.

The representative of the Ministry of Construction also noted that mini apartments must comply with the installation of 2 stairs, an internal staircase and an external staircase. The escape route must go through a safe corridor. But the apartment building that just caught fire did not have a second staircase outside the building and there was no space to arrange a safe corridor to exit to the second staircase. When going down to the first floor, there was no safe corridor to go outside.

Authorities loosen management

Previously, the Ministry of Construction also warned about the transformation of mini-apartments. According to the leader of the Ministry of Construction, in June 2020, this agency sent a document to the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities on strengthening the implementation of legal regulations on construction and controlling construction order for individual houses with many floors and many apartments, including mini-apartments.

The above document clearly states that in some localities in urban areas, there has been a situation where households and individuals have taken advantage of lax management by authorities to arbitrarily build multi-storey, multi-apartment houses without complying with legal regulations.

Typical examples include illegal construction, illegal construction, construction against planning, encroachment on space, subdivision of apartments, arbitrary addition of floors for sale and transfer. This leads to many consequences such as: violation of fire prevention and fighting regulations leading to high risk of fire and explosion in the community; overload of technical infrastructure and social infrastructure; failure to issue pink books to apartment buyers; increasing population density; disrupting planning, damaging the aesthetics and design of the city...

According to the Ministry of Construction, the 2014 Construction Law, the 2014 Housing Law and documents guiding the implementation of these two laws have created a legal corridor to relatively fully regulate related activities in the field of construction of individual housing projects.

Notably, the 2014 Housing Law and Decree No. 99/2015/ND-CP of the Government stipulate: Apartments with a minimum area of ​​30 m2 or more, designed in a closed style, meeting the requirements for apartment buildings will be granted a certificate by a competent State agency to the owner of each apartment to ensure the rights and legitimate interests of the owners.

According to the provisions of the 2014 Construction Law and its implementing documents, individual housing projects are granted construction permits when they meet the following conditions: First, they are consistent with the land use purpose according to the land use planning; second, they ensure the safety of the project; third, they meet the requirements on environment, fire prevention and fighting, and ensure the safety of technical infrastructure; fourth, they have designs that comply with standards and regulations, meet the requirements on functionality, and ensure safety during use.

Therefore, the provincial People's Committee needs to direct the Department of Construction to disseminate and propagate regulations related to construction planning, construction permits, and construction quality management so that local authorities and people clearly understand the provisions of law in the management of housing construction activities.

Along with that, localities need to properly implement legal regulations in granting construction permits, implementing construction, and managing the construction quality of individual housing projects in accordance with approved planning and construction permit content, especially for individual housing projects with many floors and many closed apartments.