Journalist Mac Viet Hong in Poland shared:
“Marywinska 44 shopping center is on fire, dozens of fire trucks are putting out the fire. Vietnamese traders have stores in this center. This year, there have been three protests by small businesses here to protest against increased rent.
Experience from previous fires shows that the possibility of being saved is not high because the construction materials of centers like this are often flammable materials (płyty warstwowe). The construction method using corrugated iron panels with stuffed cotton in the middle was very popular in shopping centers years ago. This is a cheap and quick way to make it warm enough for the winter, but unfortunately it also burns very quickly.”
Marywinska 44 shopping center caught fire on May 12, 2024 (Photo: H.Y)
Firefighters rushed here to deal with fire, but according to sources, most of the stalls were burned down.
It is estimated that there are about 700-800 Vietnamese stalls that have been doing business here for many years.
Journalist Mac Viet Hong said: „Normally, insurance companies refuse to insure stores that have this type of construction materials. However, some counters may have purchased insurance.”
M.H shared further: “Even insurers have many reasons not to pay. When they see that there are only Vietnamese and Ucrain trders, they won’t even pay. There have been many fires and people have not been compensated for anything. In the past, I rented a warehouse in Turkey, a warehouse filled with jeans, worth nearly a million dollars, (a large, expensive pair of jeans of a model cost about $500,000. After a night of rain, and everything leaked and got wet, I went to Turkey to meet the Vietnamese owner but he agreed to reduce rent for one month, that is all.”
It is known that this is one of the three markets with the largest number of Vietnamese doing business in Poland.
Smoke rose and covered the city
Updated 13:00 May 12, 2024: From Journalist Mac Viet Hong (Poland)
“This is the 6th or 7th fire related to shopping centers and markets where many Vietnamese people trade in the past 15-20 years. The previous 4 incidents took place at Wolka Kosowska, 2 small incidents at the Flower Market (Bakalarska) and this time.
This was the largest fire area, almost burning down the entire center. The number of burned stalls is also the largest, the center has 1,400 counters, of which about 2/3 are Vietnamese, meaning Vietnamese stores are about 1,000 counters. The fire affected 1,000 Vietnamese families, approximately 4,000 people, roughly 4 people per family.
Each counter temporarily costs 100,000zl for goods and investment. This morning a friend called me to say that his counter lost a few hundred thousand, but here, let’s temporarily calculate a modest number. So, the total on-site damage to goods of the Vietnamese community is 100,000,000zl, equivalent to $25 million. These are local goods, many people have to buy counter, which costs tens of thousands more. In addition, there are many people who rent houses, so they don’t want to leave money at home, but leave it in the safe at the counter. It is said that some people keep several hundred thousand in there.
Not to mention, many people will not know what to do for a living in the future. They will have no place to shop for months and no income to continue their lives. For those who have accumulated wealth for many years, it is simpler, but for many newcomers, it will be very difficult.
In very difficult cases, please speak up, or if you are shy, ask others to speak up for help, so that the community can help. The community has always helped in both fires (mini-apartment fires in Hanoi) and many other storms and floods, so people would do the same for you. The community should have a fund to do things like this, but it seems that before there was a Charity fund, a guy managing the fund for ten years disappeared with the collected money (?)
Regarding the fire, there are many suspicious details. At 3:30, the Polish fire department received a message via the automatic fire alarm system and after 10 minutes the first two fire trucks arrived at the scene, but this center had burned two third.
There are security guards in the center, there are guard posts at all entrances, and not far away are residential apartments, but for some reason no one discovered the fire. Currently, the fire department suspects that the fire did not break out in one place, but could have occurred at many places at the same time. The conspiracy theory is that the profits from building apartments are currently very large, while the shopping center is facing difficulties, so this is a way to “convert the business purpose” of the land? Of course, the official conclusion would be made from the investigation. The city will work with relevant parties in coming time.
There were 54 vehicles and more than 200 firefighters participating in the firefighting effort, but they were almost helpless. As I said in the previous status, the construction materials here are fireproof materials (płyty warstwowe), corrugated iron sheets stuffed with cotton. This was a popular form of construction for commercial centers at that time (15-20 years ago), built in the “instant noodle/fast” style, very quickly for maximum profit.
In addition, most of the people’s goods are flammable things: Shoes and clothes. There are dozens of nail salons here, and the cleaning alcohol there burns like gasoline. On the other hand, according to information from the fire department, the roof of the center collapsed quite early, causing air (oxygen) to rush in, causing the fire to spread quickly in all directions.”
The fire burned high and destroyed hundreds of Vietnamese stalls doing business here
Le Anh – Thoibao.de
