The decision follows an increasing number of fires in the city, particularly the blaze last December in Electricity of Viet Nam's 33-storey building which injured 27 people, said deputy director of the department Hoang Quoc Dinh in a meeting of the municipal committee of the Party held yesterday.
"We don't have much money to buy the helicopters, although it's not difficult to raise funds. But the most complicated problem is figuring out how to integrate helicopters with other firefighting infrastructure," he said.
Additionally, the helicopters will not be used regularly, so experts are needed to keep them in good repair. However, firefighters have not received any training on this subject, said Dinh.
Other firefighting measures such as setting up automatic fire alarms and giving guidance to residents on how to prevent and deal with fires are also in need of improvement, said Dinh.
This year the city has seen 159 fires, an increase by four compared with the same period last year.
The fires killed six people and injured 24 others, an increase by one and 10 compared with last year, respectively.
They also caused losses of VND40.7 billion (US$1.9 million), up by VND15 billion ($714,290) compared with last year.
Most fires were caused by short circuits and gas leaks.