Parishioners in Hai Phong diocese have provided emergency aid for survivors of a garment factory blaze that left as many as 17 dead and dozens more injured last week.

Local media reported that the fire broke out suddenly at the Chinese-owned factory on July 29 in Tan Dan village in the Lao district of Hai Phong city.

“On August 2, Caritas staff members in Hai Phong diocese visited victims and their relatives and offered 48 million dong (US$4,200) as an encouragement and consolation to them,” said Maria Nguyen Thi Lien, a Caritas staff member, adding that families of the dead were given one million dong while families of injured received between one and four million dong.

Lien said the victims were breadwinners for their families and that their relatives would now have nothing to live on and children would lack the resources to continue their studies.

Le Thi Hong, who died in the fire, left behind an ill husband and a child suffering paralysis. Other victims are survived by young children, Lien said.

Father John Baptiste Vu Van Kien, head of Caritas in the diocese, said the local Church has asked benefactors to do something to support the victims of the tragedy.

“We try to provide material support for them to get proper treatment and for their children to pay for their schooling in the future,” he said.

Father Kien added that local church members would pay monthly visits to the families of the victims to give them rice.

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