Photo courtesy of Tuoi Tre

A fire raged through a Vietnamese trade center early Saturday in the southern suburbs of Poland’s Warsaw capital, causing big losses for Vietnamese traders. No casualties have been reported.

Authorities said they dispatched 25 fire-fighting units after receiving an emergency call and that it took four hours to extinguish the inferno.

Though full damages have yet to be determined, Vietnam News Agency said it was likely that all Vietnamese traders working there would be financially devastated, as none were believed to have been insured against such losses.

Goods including electronics, clothes, shoes, and cosmetics sold at more than 100 shops are thought to have been destroyed by the fire, the agency said.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Poland Nguyen Van Xuong told Thanh Nien that while the exact cause of the blaze is yet to be found, “carelessness in using electricity may be the reason.”

He said the Vietnamese embassy in Poland is working with other Vietnamese organizations in the country to help support the affected traders.

The EACC is one of 15 trade centers in the Wolka Kosowka trade zone. The total area of shopping and warehouse facilities here is 150,000 square meters, the size of around fifteen shopping malls, Polish media reported.

The Wolka Kosowka trade area was originally a building constructed by overseas Chinese in the late 1090s. Since 2000, Vietnamese in Poland have been renting kiosks there to do business.

To meet an increasing demand, people of Chinese, Turkish and Vietnamese origin have rushed to build more blocks of buildings in the area, including warehouses and boarding houses.

Source: Thanh Nien, VNA