Regulations on fire prevention and fighting for apartment buildings: What do investors and residents need to know?

In recent years, fires in apartment complexes have sounded an alarm regarding fire safety in densely populated residential areas. Given that these buildings house hundreds or even thousands of residents, ensuring compliance with fire safety regulations is not solely the responsibility of the developer; it is a collective duty shared by every resident to protect lives and property. Vietnamese law establishes specific requirements for the design and installation of fire protection systems, as well as for periodic inspections and emergency drills, all aimed at preventing and effectively responding to fire incidents. This article clarifies key fire safety regulations for apartment buildings—information that both residents and management entities must fully understand to ensure the highest level of safety.

1. What types of apartments need to apply fire protection standards

According to Section 1.1 QCVN 04:2021/BXD issued together with Circular 03/2021/TT-BXD, the scope of adjustment that this regulation requires the following types of houses to meet:

- This Regulation prescribes technical requirements applicable when building new or reconstructing apartment buildings with a height of up to 150 m or having up to 3 basements, including apartment buildings built for residential purposes and apartment buildings built for mixed-use purposes.

- For an apartment building with a height of over 150 m or with 4 basements or more, in addition to complying with this regulation, it is also necessary to supplement technical requirements and organizational and technical solutions of the work in accordance with the specific characteristics of fire prevention and fighting of such apartment building. on the basis of standard documents allowed to be applied in accordance with the provisions of law. These requirements and solutions must be approved by competent professional agencies.

2. Requirements for water supply and drainage systems for apartment buildings

Indoor firefighting water supply systems and outdoor firefighting water supply systems must comply with the provisions of QCVN 06:2022/BXD and ensure the following requirements:

- Fire water supply outside the house

+ Fire safety requirements for outdoor firefighting water supply.

+ Fire safety requirements for water flow for outdoor fire fighting.

+ The number of fires calculated simultaneously.

+ Fire safety requirements for pipeline networks and works built on them.

+ Requirements for water storage tanks and tanks for outdoor fire fighting.

- Indoor fire hydrant system

+ In order to calculate the pump capacity and the amount of water reserved for fire fighting, the number of water jets and water flow for fire fighting in public houses for the part of the house located at a fire protection height of over 50m must be taken correspondingly 4 rays, each beam is 2.5 L/s, for houses of group F5 of fire and explosion hazard class A, B and C have a fire protection height of over 50m, respectively 4 rays, each beam is 5 L/s.

+ For manufacturers and warehouses using structures that are easily damaged under the impact of fire, according to Table 12, the minimum water flow for calculating pump capacity and the amount of water reserved for firefighting determined according to Table 12 must be increased depending on each case as follows:

When using steel structures without fire protection in buildings of fire-resistant tiers III and IV (groups S2, S3), as well as natural wood or plywood structures (in this case, treated wood for fire protection), an increase of 5 L/s must be increased;

When using combustible materials surrounding the structure of fire-resistant buildings IV (groups S2, S3), it must be increased by 5 L/s for houses with a volume of up to 10,000 m3. When the volume of the house is greater than 10,000 m3, it must be increased by 5 L/s for every additional 100,000 m3 or fraction of the additional 100,000 m3.

3. Ensure the equipment, arrangement, inspection and maintenance of fire fighting equipment

In section 2.1.2 QCVN 04:2021/BXD issued together with Circular 03/2021/TT-BXD, apartment buildings and mixed apartment buildings need to ensure fire safety requirements according to QCVN 06:2021/BXD and relevant regulations. The equipping, arranging, inspecting and maintaining fire prevention and fighting and rescue and rescue equipment must comply with the requirements of current regulations.

4. Regulations on height inside the apartment building

According to Section 2.2.10 QCVN 04:2021/BXD issued together with Circular 03/2021/TT-BXD in apartment buildings and mixed apartment buildings:

- For dwelling rooms, the clearance height must not be less than 2.6 m;

- For kitchens and toilets, the clearance height must not be less than 2.3 m;

- For basements, semi-basements, technical floors, the height of clearance must not be less than 2.0 m;

- For the internal space of the sloped roof used as a bedroom or living room, the clearance height of 1/2 of the room area must not be less than 2.1 m.

- The clearance height of rooms and other areas is taken according to the design task or the applicable selection standard.

5. Ensuring the requirements for parking spaces of apartment households

Pursuant to Section 2.2.17 QCVN 04:2021/BXD issued together with Circular 03/2021/TT-BXD, parking spaces (including cars, motorcycles (including electric motorcycles), bicycles) are as follows:

- Parking spaces of apartment buildings, apartment parts in mixed apartment buildings must comply with the requirements of QCVN 13:2018/BXD and must be calculated to ensure the following requirements:

+ Must be located within the area of the approved project; must arrange a separate parking area for cars with motorbikes and bicycles.

+ The parking area (including the internal road in the garage/parking lot) is at least 25m2 for 4 apartments, but not less than 20m2 for 100m2 of the apartment area, of which at least 6 m2 of parking space for motorbikes and bicycles is ensured for each apartment.

+ Social housing, resettlement and low-income housing: the area of parking spaces allowed is equal to 60% of the norm specified in Clause b) of this Article and at the same time ensure at least 6m2 of parking space for motorbikes and bicycles for each apartment apartment.

+ For every 100m2 of usable area of the apartment, there must be at least 12m2 of parking area in the garage (for multi-storey mechanical garages, the parking area is multiplied by the number of floors of the mechanical garage). The road leading to the mechanical garage is suitable for the technology of the mechanical garage and must ensure compliance with current regulations.

- The parking area (including internal roads in the garage/parking lot) of the accommodation apartment and the office part combined with accommodation in the mixed apartment building must be calculated to ensure that at least 20m2 for 160m2 of the usable area of the accommodation apartment and office part

6. Fire protection height (Fire protection height)

The fire protection height (fire protection height) of the house is determined by the distance from the lowest road surface for fire trucks to reach to the lower edge of the open door (window) on the outer wall of the top floor, excluding the top technical floor.

When there is no door hole (window), the fire protection height is determined to be equal to half of the total distance from the road surface for the fire truck to reach the floor and to the ceiling of the top floor.

In case the roof is exploited and used, the fire protection height of the house is determined by the maximum distance from the road surface for fire trucks to reach the upper edge of the roof retaining wall.

Thus, apartments need to meet at least some of the above regulations when building and using apartment buildings in accordance with the current law on fire protection. In addition, regularly check and propagate people living in apartments to comply with fire protection regulations to ensure absolute safety.

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(Written by: Nguyen Hong Ngoc; Date written: 21/05/2025)

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