Removing troubles on fire prevention for businesses

​In Dong Nai, currently there are still about 30 enterprises facing the stage of acceptance of fire prevention and fighting to put their factorie into operation. In order to solve this problem, the Provincial Police Department of Fire Prevention and Fighting and Rescue has continuously organized seminars and conferences to listen to recommendations, giving solutions for businesses.

An officer of the Police Department of Fire Prevention and Fighting and Rescue of the Provincial Police directly guides businesses to remove difficulties and obstacles in licensing, appraisal, approval and acceptance of fire prevention and fighting. Photo: Truc Vien.

Being confused by the new standards

According to the statistics of the Police Department of Fire Prevention and Rescue, the Provincial Police Department, most of the problems with more than 30 businesses that have not been able to be accepted on fire prevention and fighting across the province stem from subjective reasons. Specifically, when designing and constructing, the investors and the design and construction consultancy units do not follow, update and strictly comply with current regulations and standards of fire prevention and fighting.

Especially within 3 years (2020, 2021 and 2022), when the Ministry of Construction continuously issued 3 National Technical Regulations on fire safety for houses and buildings (QCVN 06:2020/BXD, QCVN 06:2021/BXD, QCVN 06:2022/BXD).

Notably, as QCVN 06:2021/BXD rephrased the calculation of the height of fire protection of houses, revised some regulations using the criteria of the height of houses to the criterion of the height of the fire prevention and fighting, how to determine houses belonging to the dangerous group of fire according to the main functions … there are some different points from QCVN 06:2020/BXD. This made consulting and construction units being "troubled" by the changes of standards.

Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Hai, Head of Police Department of Fire Prevention and Rescue, the Provincial Police Department, said that it could lead to a situation where the design and construction consultancy units on fire prevention and fighting (authorized by investor) when submitting an unsuccessful application (due to the incomplete composition of the dossier according to Decree No. 136/2020/ND-CP dated November 24, 2020 detailing a number of articles and measures to implement the Law on Fire Prevention and fighting and amending Law, supplementing a number of articles of Law on fire prevention and fighting) without notifying the investors. Thereby causing businesses and investors to misunderstand that the Fire Protection Agency does not respond to the investors when the application submitted.

Adjusting designs, removing at the first

Faced with the above situation, from the beginning of 2023 until now, the Police Department of Fire Prevention and Fighting and Rescue of the Provincial Police held a seminar to discuss difficulties and problems in the work of design appraisal and acceptance for fire prevention and fighting in 2023. On that basis, the Department has collected recommendations and questions about the fire prevention and fighting appraisal process from enterprises and construction units encountered  (as mentioned above) to transfer to the superior agency for consideration and removal.

Specifically, after receiving instructions from the Police Department of Fire and Rescue of the Ministry of Public Security, on April 14 and 17, the Provincial Police Department of Fire and Rescue invited more than 30 above mentioned enterprises came to work in order to remove difficulties and obstacles in licensing, appraisal, approval and acceptance of fire prevention and fighting for construction items. The Department has assigned many officials to discuss directly with enterprises. Especially listening, answering questions, offering solutions and plans for construction contractors and design consultants to choose to solve problems.

Notably, in terms of solutions to overcome difficulties for the inspection of fireproof paints, the Fire and Rescue Police Department has guided enterprises to adjust the design documents, lower the fire resistance level. For example, some enterprises, after being instructed, chose to adjust the design documents, lower the fire resistance level from level III to level IV according to QCVN 06:2022/BXD. Thus, both ensuring the area of the combustion chambers but not having to test fireproof materials. As a result, businesses will not have to test fireproof paint for the factories.

​The leader of the Police Department of Fire and Rescue of the Provincial Police said that, the procedure was submitted 100% online at the Public Service Portal of the Ministry of Public Security at that time, so all operations and information stored on the data system. All successful submissions have a separate file number which can be tracked during the process of the application, so it was very convenient for businesses.

Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Hai added that the unit continued to work with representatives of businesses having difficulties in licensing fire prevention and fighting to guide businesses to remove difficulties. In particular, we would focus on researching, on the basis of the guiding documents of the Police Department of Fire Prevention and Fighting and Rescue, Ministry of Public Security to answer questions, help businesses to find open directions for problems related to testing fire protection in the past time.

Also in the first quarter of 2023, the Fire and Rescue Police Department of the Provincial Police Department has appraised and approved the design of fire prevention and fighting for 21 works and accepted the fire prevention and fighting for 57 works, mainly factories of enterprises, companies inside and outside industrial zones.​​