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Manh Linh / Vietnam News Agency via Reuters
Rescuers search for victims at a damaged warehouse in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh city in this picture provided by Vietnam News Agency February 24, 2013. Twin blasts at a warehouse owned by a cinema special effects expert killed 10 people and reduced three homes to burning rubble in Vietnam's biggest city, state media reported on Sunday.
HANOI — Twin blasts at a warehouse owned by a cinema special effects expert killed 10 people and reduced three homes to burning rubble in Vietnam's biggest city, state media reported on Sunday.
Teams of firefighters worked through the early hours after the overnight explosions and found three survivors among the bodies buried beneath what was left of the houses in southern Ho Chi Minh City early on Sunday, the Tuoi Tre newspaper said on its website.
Among the dead was Le Minh Phuong, 58, who worked in pyrotechnics for local films and stored explosives in his home, which doubled as a warehouse, Tuoi Tre said, citing preliminary police investigations.
Six members of Phuong's family, including his six-year-old daughter, were also killed. Police said they believed the explosions were triggered by accident.
Local residents fled after the blasts shook homes located within a 500-metre radius, according to the news website VNExpress.
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What a absolutely horrible tragedy. I can't imagine why explosives would have been considered okay to store at ones home, especially with children living there. This is just heart breaking.If nothing else, I hope changes are made, so nothing like this can ever happen again. I know the standards are not the same as those in the United States, as is the case in third world countries most often. May the souls of all those who died be at peace, while those injured get all the help they need to recover quickly. And comfort, strength surround those now mourning the loss of their beloved ones.
Don't have a blast ....like that.
I was thinking the same thing, why would you store that stuff near your family. What a horrible tragedy. My condolences to the family and friends of the victims.
If Obama has his way then pretty soon we won't be able to store masssive quantities of explosive materials in our homes right here in the USA! He wants to repeal the FOurth AMendment The fourth of July AMendment.
Too bad it didn't take out the NIKE factory. While it was closed for the night and empty of course.
Xin Loi to all the people who perished from the pyrotechnical accident, especially the little girl and 5 others in her family.
jack, toi dong y con ong. Chan qua! Wonder why he stored that kind of material in his house. Ong hoc tieng viet o dau?
Mumbulu
Oct 70-Feb 72
Umgawa
ootay adbay! osay adsay.
Or in words of Stg Barnes in the movie Platoon "Google Eye V-C" KaBoom!
The Vietnamese believe in doing things without high tech or spending money to implement safety precautions. It is also probable that rather than use safer pyrotechnics, they were using and storing leftover or salvaged munitions from the war, which are not safe and are designed to cause immense damage. It is too bad people were injured and killed, but that's life and that's Vietnam. Sin loi ma noi.
The concept of SPENDING money is interesting. Perhaps their economic system is such that the loop is not closed so that spending is actually not spending. Strings need to become attached to pull money back. Perhaps this has not yet evolved in Vietnam.
Michael, you mean like the current American concept of SPENDING by printing fake money or borrowing 40 on the dollar....that SPENDING? I'll take the Vietnam model.
I hope the cameras were rolling...
2nd... Seems as tho it was just for special effects, doesn't it?
Too bad, I was just in Ho Chi MingCity and it is beautiful. Just don't understand why anyone would store explosives in their home?
Well that's an easy one, doesn't have to pay rent to store it, and doesn't have to worry about his @!$%# being stolen.
Rushless, if you "don't understand why people in HCM City (REAL NAME IS SAI GON by the way) store explosives in their own home"... then you don't understand Sai Gon. Most "private" homes along the main streets have a business either by the homeowner or rent out to a business in Sai Gon.
Crying shame Hanoi Jane wasn't killed in the blast.
It's because it's in what used to be South Vietnam and once was the city of Saigon. She liked the north where all the commies were. Karma exists, don't worry.
How did this become about Jane Fonda? Really people, comment on the subject, stay focused!!!
Jane Fonda can kiss my grits...
You have a page-down key on your keyboard, CC? Use it and STFU.
@two dogs--I hope you're right about the karma, man. So far, it seems not to have touched her. That bitch has been leading a charmed life.
That's funny The Dev, Jane had/has more courage than the current crop of draft dodging faux patriots that come out of the Repulsive Party. SHE actually set foot in Vietnam while the yellow bellied cowards like Rush, Ted, Dick, GW Bush, et al, ad infinity, ad nauseum ran and hid under mommies skirt like the chickenhawks they are/were.
And there they go!
Menendez will be out by Tuesday!
Twin blasts in Ho Chi Minh City right after midnight in Alley 384 off Namky Khoi Nghia Street in District 3 that leveled 3 houses and caused a blaze was due to firecracker powder stored on the 2nd floor above a Noodle Soup restaurant that Le Minh Phuong ('Fire and Smoke Phuong')had rented for the Lac Viet filmmaking and film effects company. 10 people perished in the accident- Le Minh Phuong (58 yr),his wife, their 3 children and a home helper known only as Tuyet. The other victims of 2 other houses - were id'ed as 51 yr old Nguyen Thanh Minh and his 25 yr old daughter Nguyen Ngoc Thuy and 44 yr old mother Nguyen Thi Than Xuan and her 15 yr old daughter Hokieu Anh. Firefighters managed to save 81 yr old Pham Quang Minh, 70 yr old Luong Thily and 71 yr old Luong Huu Hanh. Condolences to all famillies who lost their family members- the long road ahead for those rescued from the rubble . Apparently there are not very many ordnances when it comes to dry powder stored in residential areas.
@mimijacques--thanks for the information. Hope posters here have respect for the dead.
Cause of the blast, well, storing black powder above a restaurant, is not a good idea. He put an explosive, in proximity with an ignition source. Just dust from the powder, pulled down by gravity, will eventually reach the ignition source. And, BOOM! It's as smart as someone pumping gasoline while smoking a cigarette.
Dev.,you took the words out of my mouth. Even though he wasn't around during Vietnam, too bad Sean Penn wasn't there too.
To the inbred commentors wishing that specific Americans were killed in the blast. You're understanding (strecthing the meaning of that word to include your biological types) of the basis of American rights is common. You feel your opinion is correct but, don't respect other Americans to voice theirs. Comrads like you would be outstanding north Korean political leaders.
championsaints--You can express differing opinions without sitting in the chair of an anti-aircraft gun in the capitol city of your enemy. And ratting out your fellow American POWs to their camp commandant.
"ratting out your fellow American POWs to their camp commandant."
You do know...... well not you.... but most Americans know that has been debunked, but stay tuned to Fox Snooze and Not so Brietbart, and THINK you're getting smarter. I still say she had more guts than your average Republican of that era. Can you give me a list of ground combat vets from the Republican Party? I will start it off and you can finish it 1/ Chuck Hagel, 2/ Oliver North, (criminal) 3/ wow getting tougher.................
How sad and tragic...sigh
It's amazing all the haters on here wishing others were dead. What losers they are. And Sean Penn is prob in Haiti actually helping rebuild their country, unlike your sorry ....doing, um NOTHING.
Very sad for this family and their neighbors.Our country is not immune to pyrotechnics explosions.My condolences to all of their family members.
And....BOOM! goes the dynamite
Hey!! It was fine to do it during the war, why not now? Storing explosives at home is viet way!!
Math Lab Explosions - The American Way!!
He stored explosives in his house...intelligent
That's free enterprise, or is that communism? Or is it just human folly at work, which knows no ideology and no national boundaries.
Incoming!
Papasan, keep powduh in ground... no spahk !!!
Hanoi is not Vietnam's biggest city. It is the capital city.
I understand journalism ain't what it once was. But please, at least get your facts straight.
This is elementary school geography.
It didn't happen in Hanoi. If you read the article carefully then you should have known that. I go by this location 4 times a week.