HO CHI MINH CITY, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) — Ho Chi Minh City is expected to regulate that apartment blocks and office buildings which are over 100 meters in height will have to house helipads to serve fire fighting and rescue, the provincial Fire Police Department said Thursday.

High apartment blocks are also expected to have a story designated for shelter in cases of emergency.

There were 34 fires at apartment blocks and high-rise buildings in Ho Chi Minh City in the 2012-2015 period, the department said, noting that a major reason was use of unsafe electric equipment which led to electrical leakage and then short circuit.

Ho Chi Minh City currently has 1,037 apartment blocks in use, more than half of them were built before the year 2000, according to the municipal Construction Department. From now to 2020, the city will demolish at least half of 474 apartment blocks constructed before 1975.

A total of 2,268 fires and explosions broke out across Vietnam in the first eight months of this year, killing 79 people and injuring 209 others, while causing losses of some 1,026 billion Vietnamese dong (46 million U.S. dollars), said the country's Fire Prevention and Fight Department.