14 killed in Hanoi house fire

Around 0:30 a.m, the building located in a narrow alley off Trung Kinh Street, caught fire fiercely. The 150-sq.m- house has a two-story block hosting the owner's family, a three-story block providing 12 rooms for rent. The fire reportedly started from the 55-sq.m courtyard between the two blocks which was used for electric bicycle sales and repairs.

There were 24 people inside the house - seven members of the owner's family and 17 roomers.

Within minutes, the flames intensified, accompanied by several explosions.

 

 

14 killed in Hanoi house fire

Cháy nhà 5 tầng ở Hà Nội

Living in a rented room in a neighboring apartment block, Vo Thi Hoai An was suddenly awakened by people shouting "fire, fire," accompanied by explosions.

She and her roommate quickly ran downstairs, carrying two fire extinguishers. By then, fierce flames had engulfed the entire courtyard of the five-story house, and fire was also bursting from the upper floor rooms. Many people tried to extinguish the fire with extinguishers, but to no avail.

"At that time, there were no cries for help coming from inside the burning house," An recounted.

Another neighbor, Ngo Thi Thuy, 40, told a slightly different story.

Thuy said she heard screams of fire after midnight. She ran out of her room and onto the roof of her five-story house to check where the fire was.

"What hit me was something I had never seen before. Fire was burning furiously through gaps of the corrugated iron roof, and the engulfing smoke made it hard to see anything. There were explosions along with screams for help from the burning house as well as nearby houses," she said.

She joined other neighbors to pour buckets of water onto the roof of the burning house for more than 10 minutes, to no avail.

Her rooftop wall was getting hot, and she tried to drop water for another five minutes, until the firefighters arrived, she said.

People stand to watch as firefighters try to access a house on fire in an alley in Hanoi's Cau Giay District, May 24, 2024. Photo by Man Nhi

Firefighting police and rescue forces dispatched numerous vehicles and dozens of officers and soldiers to the scene, but the house's location in an alley around two meters wide and 200 meters from the main road made it inaccessible to fire trucks. The emergency services had to lay water hoses to extinguish the fire.

By the time the fire police arrived, the fire had burned down motorbikes and bicycles on the ground, and the frames and roofs for the middle ground had collapsed, while black smoke covered all the floors of the building.

Dozens of fire trucks and ambulances were on standby outside.

The police managed to break the gate into the house at around 1:05 a.m. They broke down walls and window frames and rescued seven people from the two house blocks.

The fire was extinguished by 1:30 a.m.

Remains of a burned house in Hanoi's Cau Giay District, May 24, 2024. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Du

At 3:30 a.m, several bodies were taken out of the house, and wrapped in body bags. Rescue teams at the scene are still searching for victims.

Authorities of Cau Giay said 14 people were killed in the fire.

Six people were injured and are receiving treatment at Hanoi Transport Hospital, including a 70-year-old woman, her 38-year-old daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.

Hanoi government has supported families of the victims with VND50 million (US$1,960) for each person killed and VND30 million for each person injured in the fire.

 

 

14 killed in Hanoi house fire

Video bên trong căn nhà cháy rụi, 14 người chết ở Trung Kính