Police officers were still barricading the scene of the house fire on Saturday at noon in an alley off Cach Mang Thang Tam Street in District 10.
The flames began at around 4 a.m. in the kitchen on the ground floor, before spreading to other floors. There were seven people inside at the time, and three people on the ground floor including a child managed to escape. The four deceased were on the second floor.
The ground floor of the house saw heat bring down its ceiling covers. The house spans 50 m2, with four bedrooms on the upper floors.
A house located right next to the house fire collapsed completely after the incident.
Neighbors said this house contained several flammable objects as it was an online shop. One person in the house managed to escape.
Soot stains the outside of the houses impacted by the fire.
A metal cage was installed on the second floor of the house where the fire originated from.
The only way to escape from the second floor was a wooden staircase spanning around a meter in width.
In the area where the four people died, some of the walls had been burnt away, leaving only steel bars.
Objects made of plastic, wood and textile burned and only the metal parts of window frames remained.
The heat from the fire melted parts of the roof of a nearby house.
Diep, the owner of the house, said the walls became very hot during the fire, forcing the entire family to flee.
"The incident caused a blackout for my family this morning. I have to wait until the police complete their inspection before I can call in mechanics to fix things," he said.
Four hours after the fire, the bodies of the victims – Nguyen Thi Hong Xuan, 46; Le Thi Hong Tuyet, 47; Tran Quoc Cuong, 38; and Le Hoang Dung, 56 – were retrieved from the site.
"Initial investigation suspected that someone locked the doors and lit the fire," said a statement by the HCMC firefighting police.
