HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A fire at a condominium complex in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City early Friday morning killed at least 13 people and injured another 27, police said. State media said most people died of suffocation or jumping from high floors.

It’s unclear whether anyone was missing, said the city fire and police department, declining to give more details.

“We were sleeping when the fire alarm went off, we all rushed out to the staircases. It was very hot and dark,” online newspaper VnExpress quoted condominium resident Le Thi Cam as saying.

“We were awakened by loud noise. We ran out of the apartment but there was a lot of smoke. We only had enough time to grab the mobile phone, wet some towels to cover ourselves and ran out,” the newspaper quoted an unnamed male resident as saying.

The three buildings with more than 700 apartments were built six years ago in Vietnam’s southern commercial hub. The three buildings have 14 to 20 floors.

The official Vietnam News Agency said the blaze started in the basement parking area and took more than 200 firefighters more than an hour to put under control.

In 2002, a fire at a trade center in downtown Ho Chi Minh City killed 60 people in one of Vietnam’s worst fires. </s> HANOI, Vietnam – A city official says a fire at a condominium complex in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City has killed at least 13 people and injured another 27.

The city fire and police department official says it’s unclear whether anyone is missing in the blaze early Friday morning and declined to give more details.

More than 700 apartments in the three buildings were built six years ago.

The official Vietnam News Agency reported that most people died of suffocation or jumping from high floors.

It said the blaze started in the basement parking area and took more than 200 firefighters more than an hour to put under control.

In 2002, a fire at a trade centre in the southern commercial hub’s downtown killed 60 people in one of Vietnam’s worst fires. </s> HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Police and fire officials say a fire at a condominium complex in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City has killed 13 and injured 27. </s> HANOI, March 23 (Reuters) - A fire in a Ho Chi Minh City apartment block killed 13 people in the early hours of Friday, state media and a fire department official in the Vietnamese economic hub said.

The blaze at Carina Plaza on Vo Van Kiet Street in the city also left 27 others injured, said the fire department official, who did not want to be identified.

"Most of the victims died from smoke inhalation, but we also found people who had died jumping from high windows," the official said.

"The injured are in stable condition now and we are still searching the block to make sure no one is still trapped in there."

The fire began at around 1:00 a.m. (1800 GMT Thursday) at the basement of the block and quickly spread to engulf the building, trapping hundreds of residents, according to the fire official.

More than 30 fire engines and 200 firefighters were at the site and the fire was extinguished after an hour, he said.

The official Vietnam News Agency reported on Friday that the six-year-old block was made up of 736 separate apartments. (Reporting by Khanh Vu Editing by James Pearson and Paul Tait) </s> DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A fire in a high-rise office building in Bangladesh’s capital has been brought under full control with the death toll climbing to 25, fire officials said Friday.

The blaze that burned for several hours Thursday had trapped people inside the building, some shouting for help from windows on upper floors and the roof. But fire officials later said most had been rescued. By Friday morning, no smoke was visible and firefighters and forensic investigators were working at the scene.

Mostak Ahmed, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Associated Press on Friday that the death toll rose to 25 with all but one identified. Based on information provided by relatives, no one appeared to still be unaccounted for, he said. “Still we are checking, if someone comes to us we will verify,” he said.

The fire injured about 70 people, many of them now being treated at Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s burn unit.

Fire Service duty officer Forhadul Alam said hospital authorities have started handing over the bodies to their families.

The fire at the FR Tower, on a busy avenue in Dhaka’s Banani commercial district, was the latest in a country where crowding, flouted building regulations and safety norms have made deadly blazes common.

Last month, a fire in the oldest part of Dhaka, a 400-year-old area cramped with apartments, shops and warehouses, left at least 67 people dead.

In 2012, a fire at a garment factory killed at least 112 people trapped behind its locked gates. Less than six months later, another building containing garment factories collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.

Another fire in a house illegally storing chemicals in Old Dhaka killed at least 123 people in 2010. </s> Criminal case to be filed in Bangladesh fire that killed 25

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A Bangladeshi housing official said Friday criminal charges would be filed against the owner of a building where a fire killed 25 people and which had four upper floors constructed illegally.

Minister for Housing and Public Work S.M. Rezaul Karim also pledged to take action against officials in his ministry if they were guilty of wrongdoing associated with allowing the added floors or other violations.

Raising buildings beyond approved design is rampant in Bangladesh, where the government is seeking fast economic development and the private sector is expanding.

The blaze that burned for several hours Thursday trapped people inside the building, some shouting for help from windows on upper floors and the roof. By Friday morning, no smoke was visible at the FR Tower on a busy avenue in Dhaka's Banani commercial district.

Mostak Ahmed, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Associated Press on Friday that the death toll rose to 25 with all but one identified. Based on information provided by relatives, no one appeared to still be unaccounted for, he said. "Still we are checking, if someone comes to us we will verify," he said.

The fire injured about 70 people, many of them now being treated at Dhaka Medical College Hospital's burn unit.

The fire was the latest in a country where crowding, flouted building regulations and safety norms have made deadly blazes common.

Last month, a fire in the oldest part of Dhaka, a 400-year-old area cramped with apartments, shops and warehouses, left at least 67 people dead.

In 2012, a fire at a garment factory killed at least 112 people trapped behind its locked gates. Less than six months later, another building containing garment factories collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.

Another fire in a house illegally storing chemicals in Old Dhaka killed at least 123 people in 2010. </s> By AFP

TAIPEI: Seven people -- five of them firefighters -- died in a fire that broke out late Saturday in an electronics factory in northern Taiwan, the local fire department said.

The inferno raged through the eight-floor building of a circuit board maker, located in an industrial district in Taoyuan City.

Seven firefighters were trapped by large fallen objects as they tried to search for people inside the factory.

They were rescued early Sunday but only two survived. The two others killed were factory workers from Thailand.

Seven other firefighters were injured, five of them suffering burns from an unidentified liquid, according to the fire department.

Traces of diesel and toxic chemicals were also found at the scene, it said.

The disaster follows a string of recent accidents in Taiwanese factories, raising questions about safety standards.

A huge fire broke out at a refinery of the state-run CPC Corporation in January, also in Taoyuan. There were no injuries in that incident.

In December, six Vietnamese workers were killed in another Taoyuan factory blaze that erupted in the middle of the night.

The workers were found to have been staying in an illegal dormitory at the factory, highlighting the often sub-standard living conditions for migrant workers on the island. </s> At least three people have died in a fire in a high-rise block of flats in Hawaii.

The blaze at the Marco Polo apartments in the capital Honolulu started on the 26th floor and spread to at least the 27th floor and several flats.

The number of fatalities could change as firefighters said there were reports of people trapped in their apartments.

Paramedics treated several injured people and at least two were in a serious but stable condition in hospital.

Troy Yasuda, who lives in a building across the street, was giving water to people who were evacuated.

"They were choking from the smoke," he said.

Mr Yasuda said he watched people being carried out.

"It's been an orderly evacuation," said security guard Leonard Rosa, who was answering phones from the front lobby of the 31-storey building.

Fourth-floor resident Aaron Dengler and his wife were helping their elderly neighbour get to an aid station the American Red Cross set up at a nearby park.

He said: "It doesn't help to just stand and watch." </s> KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A fire killed 24 people, mostly teenagers, trapped behind barred windows and a blocked exit in an Islamic school dormitory on the outskirts of Malaysia’s capital early Thursday, officials said.

Firefighters rushed to the scene after receiving a distress call at 5.41 a.m. and took an hour to put out the blaze, which started on the top floor of the three-story building, Kuala Lumpur police chief Amar Singh said. He said there were at least 24 charred bodies, 22 of them boys between 13 and 17, and two teachers.

Singh said 14 other students and four teachers were rescued, with six of them hospitalized in critical condition. “We believe (they died of) suffocation…the bodies were totally burnt,” he said.

The fire broke out near the door of the boys’ dormitory, trapping the victims as it was the only entrance and the windows are grilled, fire department senior official Abu Obaidat Mohamad Saithalimat said. He said the cause was believed to be a short-circuit.

A fire department official who declined to be named because he wasn’t authorized to give a statement said the bodies were piled on top of each other, indicating a possible stampede as people tried to flee the fire. The official had earlier said 25 bodies were found, but the more recent tally of dead and injured matches the number of people thought to have resided there.

Singh said police were still finalizing the details and investigating the cause.

Local media showed pictures of blackened bunk beds frames in the burned dormitory. A resident known as Norhayati told a local television station that she saw the boys crying and screaming for help, and waving their hands out of the window when the fire broke.
A fire at a condominium complex in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, kills at least 13 people and injures another 27, with most people dying of suffocation or jumping from high floors.