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CNN Live Today

Interview With Vietnam Rescuer

Aired October 30, 2002 - 11:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: At least 10 employees of an American insurance company are among the 60 people killed in a fire in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The fire broke out during the business day at the city's International Trade Center when hundreds of people were inside. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Police suspect a gas leak on the second fire.
Firefighters say their equipment was inadequate and water pressure was far too low to deal with such a big fire.

The death toll might have been higher. American Mark Gillen happened to be nearby when the fire started. He was next door, came to the rescue of dozens of people.

And Gillen joins us now by phone from Vietnam.

Mark, are there?

MARK GILLEN, AMERICAN RESCUER: I'm here.

COOPER: Mark, what happened? I mean, you were across the street, I understand, and you saw the fire. Then, what happened?

GILLEN: Across the street, I saw a fire that really didn't look too spectacular. It did look like -- in fact, it was so unspectacular, I was on my way back to work. And I looked up, and I saw on the fifth floor that there looked to be about 50 people outside in a porch area in what looked like a fire escape with no stairs.

And initially, even they seemed to have had the same attitude that there was no real worry. And as you said earlier, the fire itself was not -- would not have been really remarkable, other than the circumstances, which were that at that time there was no exit. There was only one exit which was in the center of the building which is where the fire started.

So, these people on the fifth floor were going outside to the only area where they could breathe. There were no windows that could be opened in whole building. So, they had to go outside -- it's an old Russian building -- and get fresh air on the fifth floor. That's how I saw there were about 50 people.

And you could see the mood change from one of, OK, one of the fire engines is going to get here, and when are these guys going to stop this inconvenient situation? Within about three minutes, it turned to panic, and you could see people start going over the side, trying to climb down drain pipes. And, you know, there was a real -- you just knew you had to do something, and that's really how it all started.

COOPER: And it started -- I mean, the panic began because basically fire officials didn't show up on the scene?

GILLEN: The fire -- well, that's right. Well, the panic really began, again, the circumstances were horrendous. There were no windows, no fire escapes...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: What did you do?

GILLEN: What did I do? I was on the street. Everyone was just standing by looking, and I said, you know, let's -- I started just yelling and saying, 'let's go, what have you got?' We ran up, and the first attempt was to get people, which I have seen these guys do before, one on the other, you know, getting on shoulders. There was only -- there was one -- there were three levels we had to traverse, and we figured if we could get over the first level, get enough people under the first level, we could create a human pyramid and get enough people up to the second level. That honestly didn't work too well.

And within about five minutes, these bamboo ladders that were about 7 feet in height, started showing up. So, we -- they came out of kitchens, out of garages, you know, from everywhere off the street, and we started putting these together.

These Vietnamese guys were running up, they are light and fast, and they were able to put these really a makeshift fire escape. That was able to get us to the third level, but there was still the challenge of people that were two stories up, having to somehow make it down to the third level. And they were having to actually go down a pipe, a plastic pipe.

There were 60 people. The pipe wasn't strong, and they had to go one at a time, which meant the people in the back were inhaling these fumes over a long and longer period of time.

By the time we got to the people at the very end, these guys were passed out. And I am not sure, I think one of the guys eventually -- one or two of them may have died. I heard one of them did. I think one of them was an (UNINTELLIGIBLE) employee.

COOPER: Mark, we just saw a picture of you, shirtless, carrying a person out. How many people did you personally carry?

GILLEN: Well, that's a tough question, because if you -- I don't know what pictures they are showing there. But what we were really doing, a large part of it was brining people off the roof. That was one part of what we were doing.

So, of course, you know, you're carrying people a lot. You're a link in the chain at one point. But then, there were other points where, you know, I guess because of my size relative to the other people there, I was bringing people out, trying to run them to ambulances. At the time, there were no ambulances. So, we were taking people that had fallen maybe a story, maybe two stories. I didn't see. I just knew that by the time I got on the second level, they had broken limbs, bloody faces, and there were no ambulances.

So, there were motorbikes for the first -- you know, for the injured people. We were putting them on the back of motorbikes, and there they'd go to the hospital. That's how it was going on for a while.

There were instances where I did have to go into the building and bring some people out, and this was the very end when they didn't want to bring these people down the ladder because they were nearly unconscious and couldn't climb under their own power -- not nearly. They were out of it.

And so, what they tried to do was bring them through the adjacent building. The reason I had my shirt off is the fumes there were so bad. There were two other guys in there, two Vietnamese guys that had no mask on. I was in there for about three minutes. It was unbearable. These guys must have been in there for 10 minutes, and I don't know how they didn't pass out, but they stuck with it there.

I thought I saw there what looked to be a foreigner who was unconscious, and some guy was holding him. I don't know whether what the situation was, and I picked another guy up and brought him out.

COOPER: Well, Mark, I know there are a lot of people who are very grateful for all of your efforts and very happy that you just happened to be there at the right time and the right place and were willing to do what you could. Mark Gillen, thank you very much for joining us from Vietnam today -- appreciate it.

GILLEN: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired October 30, 2002 - 11:25   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: At least 10 employees of an American insurance company are among the 60 people killed in a fire in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The fire broke out during the business day at the city's International Trade Center when hundreds of people were inside. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Police suspect a gas leak on the second fire.
Firefighters say their equipment was inadequate and water pressure was far too low to deal with such a big fire.

The death toll might have been higher. American Mark Gillen happened to be nearby when the fire started. He was next door, came to the rescue of dozens of people.

And Gillen joins us now by phone from Vietnam.

Mark, are there?

MARK GILLEN, AMERICAN RESCUER: I'm here.

COOPER: Mark, what happened? I mean, you were across the street, I understand, and you saw the fire. Then, what happened?

GILLEN: Across the street, I saw a fire that really didn't look too spectacular. It did look like -- in fact, it was so unspectacular, I was on my way back to work. And I looked up, and I saw on the fifth floor that there looked to be about 50 people outside in a porch area in what looked like a fire escape with no stairs.

And initially, even they seemed to have had the same attitude that there was no real worry. And as you said earlier, the fire itself was not -- would not have been really remarkable, other than the circumstances, which were that at that time there was no exit. There was only one exit which was in the center of the building which is where the fire started.

So, these people on the fifth floor were going outside to the only area where they could breathe. There were no windows that could be opened in whole building. So, they had to go outside -- it's an old Russian building -- and get fresh air on the fifth floor. That's how I saw there were about 50 people.

And you could see the mood change from one of, OK, one of the fire engines is going to get here, and when are these guys going to stop this inconvenient situation? Within about three minutes, it turned to panic, and you could see people start going over the side, trying to climb down drain pipes. And, you know, there was a real -- you just knew you had to do something, and that's really how it all started.

COOPER: And it started -- I mean, the panic began because basically fire officials didn't show up on the scene?

GILLEN: The fire -- well, that's right. Well, the panic really began, again, the circumstances were horrendous. There were no windows, no fire escapes...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: What did you do?

GILLEN: What did I do? I was on the street. Everyone was just standing by looking, and I said, you know, let's -- I started just yelling and saying, 'let's go, what have you got?' We ran up, and the first attempt was to get people, which I have seen these guys do before, one on the other, you know, getting on shoulders. There was only -- there was one -- there were three levels we had to traverse, and we figured if we could get over the first level, get enough people under the first level, we could create a human pyramid and get enough people up to the second level. That honestly didn't work too well.

And within about five minutes, these bamboo ladders that were about 7 feet in height, started showing up. So, we -- they came out of kitchens, out of garages, you know, from everywhere off the street, and we started putting these together.

These Vietnamese guys were running up, they are light and fast, and they were able to put these really a makeshift fire escape. That was able to get us to the third level, but there was still the challenge of people that were two stories up, having to somehow make it down to the third level. And they were having to actually go down a pipe, a plastic pipe.

There were 60 people. The pipe wasn't strong, and they had to go one at a time, which meant the people in the back were inhaling these fumes over a long and longer period of time.

By the time we got to the people at the very end, these guys were passed out. And I am not sure, I think one of the guys eventually -- one or two of them may have died. I heard one of them did. I think one of them was an (UNINTELLIGIBLE) employee.

COOPER: Mark, we just saw a picture of you, shirtless, carrying a person out. How many people did you personally carry?

GILLEN: Well, that's a tough question, because if you -- I don't know what pictures they are showing there. But what we were really doing, a large part of it was brining people off the roof. That was one part of what we were doing.

So, of course, you know, you're carrying people a lot. You're a link in the chain at one point. But then, there were other points where, you know, I guess because of my size relative to the other people there, I was bringing people out, trying to run them to ambulances. At the time, there were no ambulances. So, we were taking people that had fallen maybe a story, maybe two stories. I didn't see. I just knew that by the time I got on the second level, they had broken limbs, bloody faces, and there were no ambulances.

So, there were motorbikes for the first -- you know, for the injured people. We were putting them on the back of motorbikes, and there they'd go to the hospital. That's how it was going on for a while.

There were instances where I did have to go into the building and bring some people out, and this was the very end when they didn't want to bring these people down the ladder because they were nearly unconscious and couldn't climb under their own power -- not nearly. They were out of it.

And so, what they tried to do was bring them through the adjacent building. The reason I had my shirt off is the fumes there were so bad. There were two other guys in there, two Vietnamese guys that had no mask on. I was in there for about three minutes. It was unbearable. These guys must have been in there for 10 minutes, and I don't know how they didn't pass out, but they stuck with it there.

I thought I saw there what looked to be a foreigner who was unconscious, and some guy was holding him. I don't know whether what the situation was, and I picked another guy up and brought him out.

COOPER: Well, Mark, I know there are a lot of people who are very grateful for all of your efforts and very happy that you just happened to be there at the right time and the right place and were willing to do what you could. Mark Gillen, thank you very much for joining us from Vietnam today -- appreciate it.

GILLEN: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.