Despite numerous cases in which markets and trade centers have been engulfed by raging fires over the last few years, the importance of having an adequate fire safety system at these facilities and requiring traders to buy insurance for their stocks remain neglected.

Hundreds of vendors at the Hai Duong Trade Center are the latest victims, as none of them had insurance for their booths, which were burned to ash after a devastating fire broke out at the facility earlier this week. Total monetary damage of the disaster was estimated at VND400 billion.

Last year, more than 400 traders in a Quang Ngai market went bankrupt as the facility burst into flames in February. Again, no traders were compensated by insurance companies, as they did not have any contracts.

Tang Thi Anh, who sells clothes at the Hai Duong Trade Center, said no one has ever reminded or asked vendors to buy insurance for their stocks, nor were they instructed on fire safety.

Hai Duong chairman Nguyen Manh Hien admitted during a meeting on Sunday that traders will have to take full responsibility for their own damage without the insurance.

The management boards of the trade center, as well as those of other markets nationwide, are to blame.

According to an official from the agency that manages insurance under the Ministry of Finance, owners and managers of the trade centers or markets are required to buy insurance for traders and their assets.

But few facilities have followed this regulation.

Nguyen Thinh Long, director of the PVI Hai Duong Insurance Co, said his company has given up trying to persuade the trade center to sign a contract after several failed attempts.

The management board should have signed an insurance contract on behalf of all traders at the facility, he said, adding that its budget may have kept this from happening.

On the other hand, many insurers also have no interest in seeking markets or shopping malls as customers since they are a high risk, according to Phung Dac Loc, chairman of the Vietnam Insurance Association.

“A number of markets do not meet the fire safety standards, which drives insurers away,” he explained.

Finally, vendors themselves are not in the habit of buying insurance.