HCMC – Vu Khanh Son, chairman of 79 Technology and Environment Company, has been sentenced to six years and six months in jail as eight persons died in a fire at his workshop in 2018, according to VnExpress website.
According to an indictment of the Hanoi People’s Court on September 4, Son, 41, violated fire prevention and fighting regulations, leading to serious consequences.
In late 2012, Son rented a warehouse in an area admeasuring 180 square meters in Nam Tu Liem District to store plastic garbage bins. In 2013, he bought the warehouse and turned it into a factory by repairing and equipping it with an electric power system. On April 12, 2019, the workshop caught fire, killing eight persons and leaving another seriously burned.
At the court, Son admitted that he had upgraded the warehouse and installed the electric power system without paying attention to fire prevention facilities. There were also flammable materials in the workshop such as plastic and plywood.
Son said he has yet to determine the cause of the fire, but believed that a short circuit was the main reason. He had never thought about fire as his production business was not related much to electricity use.
