A scene of devastation and danger after Rang Dong inferno

The fire raged between 6.pm and 10.pm on August 28 at Rang Dong Light Source and Vacuum Flask JSC

After the fire on August 28, a lot of investors have been selling off their RAL holdings. As soon as the August 29 and 30 trading sessions were opened, RAL hit the bottom. Specifically, it declined from VND88,000 ($3.8) at the end of the August 28 session to VND81,900 ($3.55) on August 29 and VND77,500 ($3.37) on August 30.

Before the fire, RAL was one of the stocks producing the most impressive increases in the past few months. Since the beginning of July to August 28, the stock rose by 15 per cent.

The volume of stocks traded is also increasing sharply. While only about 6,300 RAL stocks were transacted during the ten sessions before August 28, this quantity rose to 50,000 stocks a day, while purchasing orders matched less than 1 per cent of the number of stocks on sale.

With 11.5 million shares listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HSX), Rang Dong has lost VND120.75 billion ($5.25 million) from its capitalisation in only after two days.

Rang Dong announced that the fire did not have any casualties but destroyed around VND150 billion ($6.52 million) of the company's assets.

The inferno wrought serious damage to Rong Dong and a neighbouring warehouse

In addition to the damage to assets, the fire at Rang Dong is suspected to have released mercury into the air, potentially poisoning people, food, and water resources in nearby areas. After the fire, Ha Dinh ward's People's Committee issued a document advising people not to consume food grown or water sourced from within a 1 kilometre radius of Rang Dong for the next 21 days. They were also advised to evacuate children, the elderly, and the sick from areas affected by the fire.

However, this document has been revoked a day later. The local People's Committee is still collaborating with relevant authorities and agencies to identify potential contamination from the fire.

Earlier, on August 28, the fire started at Rang Dong Light Source and Vacuum Flask JSC on Ha Dinh street, Hanoi's Thanh Xuan district at 6 pm. Nearly 50 fire trucks were dispatched to the scene. The fire spread from Rang Dong to the adjacent warehouse of Dong Luc Group. The fire was extinguished by 11.40 pm.