Family of four die in Hanoi house-store fire

By Tat Dinh   April 3, 2021 | 08:02 pm PT
Four family members, including a pregnant woman and a child, died early Sunday in a fire at their house cum baby clothing shop.

Locals said the fire broke out about an hour after midnight.

On seeing smoke and flames coming out of the house at 311 Ton Duc Thang Street in Dong Da District, neighbors called the Hanoi fire police immediately.

"The flames went up quickly and burned fiercely after a while, and no one dared to go closer," one of the neighbors said.

The three-storied tube house with an attic has just one main entrance, trapping its inhabitants with no other exit, locals said.

The four family members who died are an 81-year-old man, his 40-year-old daughter who was three months pregnant, her 38-year-old husband, and a 10-year-old daughter of the couple.

The family ran a store selling baby items, including clothes and diapers, on the ground floor of the house and used part of the second and third floor as its warehouse.

Firefighters bring the body of a victim out of the house in Dong Da District of Hanoi where a fire killed four family members on April 4, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dinh

Firefighters bring the body of a victim out of the house in Dong Da District of Hanoi where a fire killed four family members on April 4, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dinh.

It took ten fire trucks and dozens of firefighters until around 3:40 a.m. to put out the fire.

Around 4:30 a.m., they found the four burned bodies in the attic.

The cause of the fire is being investigated.

Just last week, six members of a family in HCMC, including two children, also died after their house caught fire.

In the first eight months last year, Hanoi reported 268 fires and one blast that killed six and caused economic damage estimated at over VND6.2 billion (over $267,000).

 
 
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