Eight Vietnam’s fire prison that killed 56

(Update) Hanoi – A Vietnamese court closed eight people on Friday for a fire that passed through an apartment block in Hanoi in 2023, killing 56 in the most deadly fire in two decades.

The building had only one exit and did not have an emergency ladder on the outside.

Neighbors and residents reported that they heard screams while people were striving to escape flames through the windows.

Too easy punishment relatives of the victims of an apartment block from 2023 apartment block leaves from the People’s Court in Hanoi, after a conviction in question, on March 14, 2025. PHOTO AFP

The owner of the nine-storey block deserved the “most serious punishment” for fire in September 2023, said the court in Hanoi, condemning him that he had violated the fire prevention regulations and closed it for 12 years.

However, the relatives of the victims said that the sentence should have been longer.

Families were prevented from talking to the media outside the court.

“I am not satisfied with the verdict,” said Van, whose brother, sister -in -law and their child were killed in the fire.

“They should be punished even more for what they did to us,” she told AFP by phone, fighting with tears back.

The other child of the couple survived, she said, but was forced to leave the capital to live with relatives in the rural area.

The actions of the owner of the apartment block, we have quang minh, were “very dangerous,” said the verdict, “causing particularly serious consequences in human lives and material damage.”

One of the four parts of the building, which was on a narrow alley in a densely populated area of ​​the capital, had no windows and another had only tiny ventilation slots.

“Among the dead and wounded were more children and people in the same family, causing huge pain,” the court said.

Minh was ordered to pay a total of over $ 900,000 to families and victims survivors.

Seven local officials also received terms of imprisonment from 30 months to seven years for “lack of responsibility that caused serious consequences” after not correctly reporting the owner’s offenses.

Additional floors and rooms

The government has ordered a national checking of fire prevention systems in “mini apartment” blocks and other dense rental cases populated as a result of the disaster.

In order to respond to the demand for housing, Vietnam has legalized in 2014 blocks of small-known apartments locally under the name of “mini apartments”-which are built largely by private persons and either rented to workers with low and migrant or sold income.

According to the indictment quoted by the state media, Minh illegally changed the design of the building to make three floors above and with 12 additional rooms.

The illegal changes were reported while the building was under construction and Minh was fined, but the officials involved did not report the crimes for their superiors, the state press said.