Among house fire’s 14 dead, newlyweds’ families mourn

Trung’s family from the northern province of Hai Duong and Phuong’s family from Hanoi’s neighboring province of Bac Ninh arrived at the waiting area of the capital’s Cau Giay Funeral Home at 10 a.m. on Friday to identify their children’s bodies.

Once they were let in to see the corpses, Phuong’s aunt immediately recognized her niece’s body because the young woman’s face was only slightly smudged with soot.

"I recognized her glasses and earrings," the mourning aunt said tearfully. "The polka-dot shirt she was wearing was one I bought for her."

Trung’s family had a harder time identifying his body. Both his grandfather and father were uncertain as to which of the burned corpses was their boy’s.

"Were these two people found in the same room before they were brought in?" they asked the funeral home staff, who couldn’t provide an answer.

They were referring to Phuong’s body in relation to the one they were thinking might be Trung’s. Once the family ascertained that the two bodies lying side by side were indeed the newlywed husband and wife, they broke down in tears with news of the confirmation.

"Why did God unfairly take both my son and daughter-in-law at once?" Trung’s mother cried on a relative’s shoulder.

Trung’s mother and younger sister break down in tears at the Cau Giay Funeral Home in Hanoi on the morning of May 24, 2024. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Nga

A fire broke out around 0:30 a.m. Friday in the 150-square-meter home, which was being used as a rooming house, resulting in 14 deaths and six injuries. The entire property had become engulfed in flames just minutes after the blaze broke. Trung and Phuong had been renting a room in the house.

Trung was a 26-year-old IT executive. His wife Phuong was a 23-year-old Japanese interpreter. The two had dated for three years before marrying on March 17. They had chosen the date to mark the occasion of Phuong’s father returning to Vietnam from his work in Taiwan for a brief break and visit.

Phuong’s aunt came across the news about the Trung Kinh house fire early in the morning. Recognizing that the photo used in the article was of the house where her niece and nephew-in-law were living, she searched for her niece’s name in her phone contacts with shaking hands.

"I called both of them dozens of times, but there was no answer," she recounted.

Vu, a cousin of Phuong, said he had just picked her up to go to their hometown two days earlier. That day, Phuong instructed him to pick her up at alley 99, so initially, when he read that the fire broke out at a house in alley 98, he didn’t think it was her place. But then, as he saw that the fire started at a shop that sells and repairs bicycles and electric motorcycles, he checked their messages again.

"I was shocked," Vu, a first-year student at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, said. "In her message, she had clearly written that the pickup spot was in front of the vehicle repair shop."

Unable to reach his family members, Vu tried going directly to the funeral home.

"As I mentioned Phuong’s name upon arriving at the 198 Funeral Home, I was asked if she was born in 2001," he shared. "Then they told me to go to the Cau Giay Funeral Home to identify the body."

A room in the Trung Kinh house left with many twisted and charred items, as well as blackened walls and ceilings after the fire on May 24, 2024. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy

Trung’s cousin also described him as a gentle and determined man. Trung had initially studied automotive engineering before switching to Information Technology, and he was currently working at a large company "with a promising future." Both Trung and Phuong were the eldest children in their families.

"All the effort their parents put into raising them aside, there’s no pain greater than losing two children at once," Trung’s cousin said.

After confirming the bodies of the couple, Trung’s grandfather discussed with Phuong’s family about burying both of them in Trung’s hometown in Hai Duong.

"The kids loved each other and vowed to be together in life and death, so we want to keep them together," he said.

*The names of the two victims have been changed.