Police in Hanoi have required nearly 16,500 boarding houses and 22 mini apartment buildings to stop their operations after fire safety inspections, according to a press briefing on Monday afternoon.

Lieutenant General Nguyen Hai Trung, director of the municipal Department of Public Security, announced the department’s performance in the first half of the year at the press conference.

He also detailed the results of inspections over compliance with firefighting and prevention regulations at apartment buildings, boarding houses, shophouses, kindergartens, and private clinics, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

As of July 4, police officers had scrutinized a total of 36,972 boarding houses, penalizing over 3,130 violation cases with a combined fine of more than VND12 billion (US$469,800), and suspending the operations of 672 houses.

Nearly 16,500 facilities were required to close as they failed to abide by fire safety rules.

As for mini apartment blocks, police officers conducted inspections into 193 buildings, pausing the operations of 14 facilities and ordering 22 apartment blocks to shut down.

Among over 5,800 shophouses undergoing scrutiny on fire safety, 435 facilities were fined, while nine others were close down temporarily.

As many as 129 shophouses were asked to cease their operations.

Hundreds of kindergartens and private clinics were scrutinized, with 23 pre-schools and one clinic facing suspension. 

In addition, police inspected 23 exhibition and convention centers, sanctioning one.

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