HO CHI MINH CITY, April 1 -- A total of 1,293 fires and explosions broke out across Vietnam in the first quarter of this year, killing 33 people and injuring 69 others, while leaving losses of some 684 billion Vietnamese dong (30.7 million U.S. dollars), the country's Fire Prevention and Fight Department said Saturday.
Compared with the first quarter of last year, the number of fires and explosions increased 37,7 percent, in which deaths surged 2.5 times, injuries dropped 13.8 percent, and the property losses rose 34.2 percent.
Most of the fires and explosions in the first three months of this year happened in residential areas, industrial parks and business sites. The fire at a night market in the southern province of Binh Phuoc on Feb. 15 killed three people; and the fire at Tra Noc Industrial Park in the southern city of Can Tho on March 23 caused estimated losses of 6 million U.S. dollars.
Between January and March, natural disasters in Vietnam injured six people, and damaged 2,900 houses, 3,200 hectares of paddy rice, 1,465 hectares of other crops and 326 hectares of aquaculture ponds, causing property losses of over 57 billion Vietnamese dong (nearly 2.6 million U.S. dollars), said the country's General Statistics Office.
