On January 27, the Hanoi People's Committee held a conference to review fire prevention, firefighting and rescue work in 2025 and to roll out key programs, plans and tasks for 2026 across the city.

Duong Duc Tuan, member of the Hanoi Party Standing Committee and Standing Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee, chaired the conference.

The conference took place at the city's administrative headquarters and was connected online to the headquarters of 126 wards and communes citywide.

In 2025, major changes took place in streamlining organizational structures from the central to local levels. At the same time, regulations on fire prevention, firefighting and rescue underwent significant revisions.

With the highest sense of responsibility, the Hanoi People's Committee proactively directed advisory work and implemented strong measures to carry out fire prevention, firefighting and rescue tasks in a consistent and uninterrupted manner across the city.

Hanoi recorded 1,037 fires in 2025, down 199 cases compared with 2024 and one explosion, down one case. However, fires and explosions still caused serious consequences, including 24 deaths, 22 injuries and property losses estimated at about VND46.8 billion ($1.8 million), an increase from the previous year.

Electrical system and equipment failures remained the leading cause, accounting for more than 73% of fires with identified causes. Fires mainly occurred in single-family houses, combined residential and business premises and facilities with large crowds, particularly in urban areas, accounting for nearly 52% of all cases.

Authorities also received 336 rescue reports and directly organized 225 rescue operations, guiding 245 people to safety.

During the year, the fire prevention, firefighting and rescue police directly handled 681 fire incidents, rescued and guided 138 people to escape and protected or relocated property worth about VND12.6 billion ($483,500).

Notably on-site forces continued to play an effective role by promptly handling and extinguishing 356 fires, accounting for more than 34% of total cases and helping limit damage.

Based on these results, the city reviewed 3,012 facilities that failed to meet fire safety requirements. Of these, 275 facilities have completed corrective measures, while the remaining ones are undergoing classification and the development of specific handling roadmaps aligned with the two-tier local government model.

Inspection and enforcement activities also intensified. Authorities inspected more than 50,000 facilities, fined nearly 1,400 individuals and organizations with total penalties exceeding VND30 billion ($1.15 million) and suspended or temporarily shut down hundreds of seriously violating facilities.

The city maintained and expanded effective models such as "Inter-household fire safety groups", "Public firefighting points" and campaigns to open second emergency exits. To date, 96.5% of eligible households have opened second exits and more than 25,600 public firefighting points have been installed in narrow alleys.

Despite these achievements, fire prevention, firefighting and rescue work still faces limitations, including a large number of illegally built or improperly permitted structures, inadequate transport infrastructure for firefighting and difficulties at grassroots levels in implementing new task assignments under the Fire Prevention, Firefighting and Rescue Law.

At the conference, representatives from the Hanoi Department of Construction presented Plan No. 345/KH-UBND dated December 17, 2025 on handling facilities that fail to meet fire safety requirements under Clause 6, Article 55 of the 2024 Fire Prevention, Firefighting and Rescue Law, as well as buildings operating without fire safety acceptance approval.

The department also announced Decision No. 16/QD-UBND dated January 5, 2026 approving a list of areas that lack adequate transport infrastructure or water sources for firefighting in accordance with legal and technical standards.

Speaking at the conference, Colonel Pham Hung Duong, Deputy Director of the Fire Prevention, Firefighting and Rescue Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security, said fire and explosion risks in the city remained high in 2025.

He noted that many facilities still fail to meet fire safety requirements and urged Hanoi to further strengthen legal awareness campaigns, enhance accountability of local party committees and authorities, increase infrastructure investment, especially in transport and water supply for firefighting and reinforce the core role of the fire and rescue police to ensure safety for the capital.

In his concluding remarks, Standing Vice Chairman Duong Duc Tuan acknowledged and praised the achievements of relevant units.

He said the city has basically issued a full set of directives, resolutions, programs, plans and guidance documents on fire prevention, firefighting and rescue in line with current regulations and the two-tier local government model.

However, he also frankly pointed out remaining shortcomings. Fire and explosion incidents remain complex and have caused serious losses of life and property.

Firefighting infrastructure and equipment still fail to meet requirements in the new context. Many buildings operate without fire safety acceptance, fail to meet safety standards, were built before the 2001 Fire Prevention and Firefighting Law took effect, or were constructed illegally.

Given these urgent demands, he called for continued close adherence to central and city directives in 2026 to create clear improvements in fire prevention, firefighting and rescue work.

The focus will remain on implementing the "Overall plan to enhance capacity and ensure fire prevention, firefighting and rescue safety in the capital through 2025, with orientation to 2030", defining this work as a long-term and strategic task for sustainable urban development.

The city will also renew communication efforts by shifting from legal dissemination to building fire safety skills and habits in the awareness of individuals, households and facilities, while applying digital transformation in fire safety communication.

Tuan urged agencies and localities to completely resolve outstanding fire safety violations, with priority given to facilities that fail to meet fire safety requirements.

He stressed stronger fire safety control for multi-story apartment buildings, rental housing, combined residential and business premises and the strict handling of illegal construction.

"Enforcement must remain strict, synchronized, within authority and clearly accountable, with the highest goal of protecting lives and property and maintaining legal order across the city", the Standing Vice Chairman emphasized.

The Hanoi People's Committee assigned the Hanoi Department of Public Security as the standing advisory agency to propose special handling measures for persistent fire safety violations under the Capital Law, continue building a legal basis for final resolution and end prolonged violations.

At the same time, police forces must effectively implement the project on building a fire incident transmission and alert system to maximize the use of the critical "golden time" during emergencies.

Tuan also instructed the Hanoi Department of Public Security and ward- and commune-level People's Committees to guide 100% of regulated facilities to complete all required data declarations by August 30, 2026.

He tasked them to regularly update information in the fire prevention, firefighting and rescue database to ensure accuracy, completeness, cleanliness and real-time validity.