Fire reveals hidden oil stock at Taiwanese company

The southern province police department said that the Kwong Lung Meko Company didn’t follow its fire prevention obligations properly, leading to a devastating fire last week on March 23.- Photo tuoitre.vn

The fire began at the facility in Trà Nóc Industrial Park in Bình Thụy District at around 9:15 am on March 23 and flames ravaged the building until 11:30 am the following day.

On Sunday evening – just four days after the original incident – the blazed reignited.

Major General Trần Thị Ngọc Đẹp, director of the municipal Department of Firefighting Police, said the fire was “extremely complicated.”

One week before the accident, a large amount of material was brought to the company in order to fulfill an upcoming export shipment that would require round-the-clock operations.

The firm was too focused on making profits and had overlooked fire safety requirements, Đẹp said.

Firefighting units discovered flammable materials including feathers, fabric, cardboard and plastic at the facility.

About 26 firefighting vehicles and dozens of officers were dispatched to the scene to put out the fire.

“We were able to prevent the flames from reaching 18,600 litres of oil the company had stored in its basement.”

She added that managers of the company had failed to mention the oil storage tank to competent authorities.

“If we weren’t able to prevent the flame from reaching the oil, the consequences would have been tragic,” she said.

The Criminal Science Institute under the Ministry of Public Security collected evidence from the scene to identify the cause of the blaze.

According to Đẹp, about 80 percent of Kwong Lung Meko Company’s assets were saved and the firm’s VNĐ1.1 billion (US$48,000) annual insurance policy paid out VNĐ555 billion ($24.2 million) to cover the damaged property.

Nearly 1,000 employees and staff at the company were unharmed.

Chen Lai Shik Kuan, General Director of Kwong Lung Company, apologised to people living near the incident site for the trouble it caused and for not properly observing fire safety regulations.