VietNamNet Bridge – Hundreds of firefighters battled a blaze that devastated at least eight houses and caused chaos for many hours in central HCM City yesterday, Dec 1st.

A blaze that occured in central HCM City yesterday (Dec 1) has devastated at least eight houses and caused chaos for many hours. — Photo infonet.vn

The fire which broke out at about 3pm in a house building in the Vo Van Kiet Street, District 1, but spread quickly to many houses nearby and had forced hundreds of people run out of the areas.

There had been no confirmation on the number of casualties and injuries but damages were initially estimated at dozens of billions of dong.

About 150 firefighters and 25 fire-fighting trucks were mobilised to the areas to extinguish the blaze.

It took more than two hours for the fire fighters to quench it and relocate all of the households to safer areas.

Residents at the areas said they heard explosions before the blaze was flaring and a very high smoke rising.

Hoang Thi Lien, an authority official from the Cau Ong Lanh Ward where the blaze occured, said the authority had arranged new accommodations for residents from the fire-hit area and gave initial financial aid worth about VND30 million (roughtly US$1,400) to them.

The reasons of the fire were still under investigation, the official said.

Source: VNS