October 29th, 2002
It was a beautiful sunny day in Saigon – Ho Chi Minh
City. Cool air pervaded the streets of the city center. The echoes of a bygone
rainy season were still there, though, everyone no longer had to deal with the
annoying sudden showers.
It was the early 2000s, Ho Chi Minh City was both a
bit modern and developed thanks to the Đổi mới (Innovation) policy adopted more
than 10 years prior. The city is one of the places where foreign businesses
invest the most, with more and more people working in international
corporations.
Located in one of the city's golden lands, the International Trade Center (ITC) was one of the symbols of that development. The first floor consisted of luxury shops, mainly selling jewelry and souvenirs to tourists who visited here; the second floor was a disco owned by a Vietnamese-American businessman, the next two floors were home to nearly 50 offices of domestic and international companies. The remaining floors were restaurants. All were located in a block built during the Vietnam War, formerly named Crystal Palace.
 |
| Former Crystal Palace in 1968. |
That afternoon, Khai Dinh, one of the first
professional DJs in Vietnam, parked his motor in front of the building. Khai
Dinh served at the disco on the second floor, called Blue, which is one of the
places which had the most vibrant nightlife in the city. He went up there to
prepare for his performance in the night.
Even so, he did not enter Blue but went to the 3rd
floor to see the owner and the staff there. The disco was being repaired, more
thick soundproof panels were being installed to prevent the hustle and bustle
inside from escaping.
“I started noticing smoke coming out of the disco
when I went downstairs,” Khai Dinh remembered, shivering. “The smell of burning
plastic wafted through the air.”
He ran to the third floor to warn everyone.
But from that moment on, the situation became
serious. The staircase that served as the only exit for the whole building
became a giant chimney, sending thick and toxic smoke throughout the
building. Fire alarms rang, hundreds of people poured into the corridors and
scattered.
“It (the fire) spread too quickly. Everyone started
to panic”. The only thing he could think of was to find a place where he could
breathe.
No more thought and his survival instincts had kicked in. Khai Dinh found a way to run to the rooftop.
 |
| Flames and smoke on the 2nd floor, where the fire started. |
When the fire became out of control, people in the
area rushed to leave, moving their belongings to a safe place.
At 2pm, almost all the firefighting and medical
forces in the city gathered around the block to participate in firefighting and
aiding. Fire and smoke were then like a monster, trapping survivors inside a
bunker of structure.
"You could see fear taking over, like a wave"
 |
| Dark smoke covering a large area |
Mark Gillin, an American, had been in Vietnam for nearly 10 years at that time. He worked as a ship parts salesman before investing in this city.
Gillin was in a café at the time, waiting for his
Vietnamese teacher, who would probably arrive at 1pm. It was late October and
the weather was probably cool. But when Gillin looked out the window, the whole
sky was filled with black smoke. Only a few steps away, a giant dark smoke
column surrounded the famous commercial center. Everyone in the café rushed
out.
At this moment, what is happening at the ITC
building has attracted the attention of the whole country. The aftermath of
9/11, which took place just a year prior, still lingered, and some thought the
city was under attack. People gathered in large numbers on the streets, people
looked on in bewilderment. At the main gate - the only exit for the whole
building, people were rushing out to escape the fire.
The building was built during the hottest period of the war, so it was designed to prevent an attack on it. Then, stuff that was originally meant to protect the people inside, prevented people from getting out.
Video: one of the videos recorded the entire fire scene.
Khai Dinh had then climbed to the top floor of the building.
With him on the rooftop were more than 20 other
people. When they made it to the rooftop, they thought that they would escape,
and the fire department would quickly arrive at the scene to save them. But
when the smoke began to surround them, Khai Dinh could not breathe. He climbed
into a giant water tank nearby to avoid heat and suffocation. He pressed his
face to his soaked T-shirt. After about 20 minutes, the water heated up, Dinh
climbed out again and fell on the metal roof of the building. Now it was like a
pan and Khai Dinh himself was a piece of meat on it.
He felt no pain, probably because all of his senses were focused on escaping the line between life and death. He looked at his watch and realized he'd been up here for half an hour. The rest of the people on the rooftop were no longer there. “They must have jumped off and died” – Dinh thought.
 |
| Fire trucks at the scene |
It was the last day of staff training with the
participation of more than 140 people run by the AIA (American International
Assurance) company. They just woke up from their afternoon nap.
“Fire broke out at our feet, people pushed each other and jumped to the fifth floor of the next building. I also jumped, broke my leg, was trying to crawl out, when the lifeguard pulled me down," - an AIA employee recalled. The company lost 23 people that day, all of them were young, and the future was awaiting them.
 |
| Some people are climbing down from the upper floors. A lot of people weren't as lucky as they were. |
At 3pm, fire hoses sprayed water inside the building. Some of that water is blocked by the structure of the building, the other part is evaporated by heat up to 1000 degrees Celsius.
“Many hands waving at balconies, windows. They were
screaming, but as soon as a gust of wind passed, bringing the smoke down, all
was quiet.”
The crowd screamed in fear as some people began to
jump down from the upper floors. When they had to choose between burning to death
and falling to death, they hoped for a gentle and quick one. Some people died
from the jumps, some were disabled.
When the fire was under control and the smoke was
less thick, burnt bodies gradually appeared on the fourth and fifth floors of
the building. Firefighters had to break through walls and break into each area
to put out fires.
Huynh Van Phon, a firefighter, was approaching the statue's floor by a long ladder. Phon could see many corpses, they had suffocated or died from falls. He recognized a man struggling with smoke there as people below shouted and said there was still a man up there. Phan urged Dinh to calm down. The fireman guided him down the ladder step by step. When Dinh got to the ground, he fainted from exhaustion. He survived and was the only one to be saved from the rooftop.
 |
| Firefighters using a ladder to rescue people trapped on high floors. |
"We were not ready for such a big fire at the downtown"
Firefighters arrived 15 minutes after the fire
started. Chaos was already there. Inexperience and surprise held them back. Of
the more than 400 firefighters on the scene, only a few were equipped with
protective gear or gas masks.
“We lacked protective gear,” said Huynh Van Tuan,
one of the first at the scene. Every time the wind blew, even the firefighters
were suffocated. "It's like our 9/11."
The water hydrants in the area that existed from pre-1975 could not handle the need of extinguishing the fire. Firefighters had to
pump water from the Saigon River to put it out.
At 7pm, the fire was extinguished. 60 people died,
and more than 100 were injured in one of the deadliest peacetime disasters in
modern Vietnam. The cause of the incident was determined to be that the
welders, who were repairing the Blue disco on the 2nd floor, violated fire
regulations. Sparks hit the flammable foam sheets. Not only that, but they also
proved irresponsible when fleeing the scene when the fire was just starting.
All involved were sentenced to between two and seven years in prison in a trial
that took place in 2005.
 |
| The building that night when the fire was extinguished. |
Many years later
Hai Dang, a former employee of AIA, was working on
final details for a 7-minute video to commemorate the 23 employees who died. He
was preparing for a trip back up to Ho Chi Minh City to light incense for the
dead. “It was too fast,” he said.
Do Minh Huy, also one of the survivors after jumping
from the 5th floor. He broke his spine and damaged many other parts. He had to
use crutches and a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
“There are mornings when I wake up and see those
crutches next to me, I get frustrated thinking why do I have to be like this?
But then every time I eat a delicious dish, watch a good movie, travel to a
scenic spot, I find myself luckier than 60 other people who had to die in the
fire."
Hai Dang or Minh Huy, like many others, have learned to appreciate life, to be grateful for it.
Mr. Huynh Van Phon is now a major. He said that
during the past 15 years, he always wanted to see the young man he rescued.
That was the first person he directly rescued because at that time he only served
as a fire truck driver.
“I want to find that young man again to know how he
lives, but I don't know who he is to meet. I only remember the body of a small,
skinny man with peeling feet…”
Hugging the firefighter, Khai Dinh thanked his benefactor for saving his life on the roof of the ITC building.
 |
| Major Huynh Van Phon and DJ Khai Dinh meeting again after 15 years (2017). |
After Khai Dinh was hospitalized at Cho Ray hospital, he received news that his girlfriend was pregnant.
“I am so lucky. The future wife, twin children have
not lost a husband, lost a father. You are the one who saved my life. Thank
you. After the ITC incident, I now live more responsibly, happier, and
appreciate my current life” – Dinh said.
In the legacy of the ITC fire, city leaders and the Ministry of Public Security have upgraded the fire prevention system and firefighting force. They have been equipped with more complete facilities, received more professional training.
 |
| The land where the ITC building used to stand today. |
The burnt building was no longer in use, it was
demolished shortly after. Currently, this area is still empty, no buildings
have been built. It is rumored that the land is haunted. The traces of the
disaster of the past have disappeared over the years, but the horrifying
memories of those who witnessed and participated in the firefighting remained
forever.
Reference sources: VnExpress, aFamily, Thể thao & văn hóa, Wikipedia, and more.