Northern Vietnam city orders removal of metal cages from apartments

Nguyen Duc Tho, vice chairman of Hai Phong, requested authorities of Le Chan, Ngo Quyen, Hong Bang, Kien An and Hai An Districts to inform its citizens to willfully dismantle all illegally installed metal cages.

If they do not obey, authorities will dismantle the cages themselves, and the Hai Phong House Management and Trading company will end their lease for renting the houses.

Hai Phong currently has 205 state-owned apartment buildings with 8,000 apartments, most having been around for dozens of years.

In order to prevent theft, thousands of families have illegally modified the apartments to create metal cages, which often get in the way of firefighting and rescue efforts.

From Nov. 17 to 30, the Le Chan District urban management department, along with 15 wards, is dismantling metal cages at apartment buildings. There are currently around 2,000 families living in apartments in the district.

Ngo Quyen District has 120 old apartment buildings, with Van My Ward in particular having 10 rows of buildings, which were built in 1975-1980, totaling 1,288 apartments with over 4,200 people living in them. The area has the highest number of metal cages throughout the city, with 938.

Authorities are persuading people to remove parts of their metal cages in order to create emergency escapes, ensuring that firefighting and rescue forces can gain access to buildings if needed.