Massive fire destroys foam factory in southern Vietnam

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As the thick black, toxic smoke rolled off into the sky on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 30, some workers at the factory wondered if their jobs might go along with it.

Roughly 100 firefighters were mobilized to the scene to combat the 10-alarm blaze shortly after a large explosion was heard about 2:30pm.

Thick black smoke greeted firefighters, but inside was an inferno fed by countless pallets of the Styrofoam packing material made at the building.

Concerns about toxic smoke triggered an area evacuation. The fire chief was also quick to pull his crews out of the enormous building amid fears the roof might cave in and that’s exactly what happened.

Figuring out what ignited the blaze may not be easy, said fire officials. We don’t know what caused it. We are very happy that everybody is accounted for.