A blaze of fire ripped through a wheat flour warehouse in Ho Chi Minh City early Sunday.

One thousand tons of wheat flour had been stored at the site on Pham The Hien Street, District 8, and dozens of tons were estimated to have been burned or spoiled in the blaze.

A large amount of property and 62 tons of used plastic bags were also reduced to ashes.

HCMC police sent 28 fire trucks, four boats and 162 fire fighters to extinguish the fire, which took about two hours to put out.

Local residents said they saw a tall column of smoke rising from the warehouse at around 1a.m. while. The company guard was sleeping across the street when fire broke out, according to local newswire Vnexpress.

Police are investigating the cause of the blaze and also estimating the damages.

The fire was the eleventh major blaze in the city in the past five days, including seven on Wednesday, according to the city Fire Department.

On Wednesday, a fire burned down a sponge factory in District 6, killing 16-year-old worker Nguyen Thi Na. Another fire that same day incinerated parts of a wood processing factory in Cu Chi District an hour before another burned materials at a Taiwanese sole maker in Binh Tan District.

Four other fires were stopped before they caused major damages that day.

Reported by Ngoc Tho