On May 13 a three-story house on Thanh Cong Street, Ha Dong District, caught fire, killing a woman and her four grandchildren. The "tube" house is 40 m2 wide, the two sides virtually share walls with neighboring houses and there is only one exit in the front.
The owner had installed iron bars on the second and third floors, and firefighters had to cut through the bars on the second floor.
Four days later another fire broke out in a four-story tube house on Vinh Phuc Street, Ba Dinh District, and all five occupants, including children, managed to escape through the balcony.
Minh Tam, the owner of the house, says she was lucky not to have barred the balcony or else things might have been different.
With limited land available in big cities like Hanoi, tube houses are the only choice for people. According to official statistics, they account for 70% of houses in Hanoi.
Due to fear of burglary and sometimes the safety of children people do not build doors on the top floor and fence balconies with iron bars and steel mesh. Thus, when a fire or explosion occurs, people cannot get out and it is difficult for firefighters and rescuers to get access.
Seven years ago, after burglars broke into his house through a balcony and stole valuables, Nguyen Xuan Binh, 67, in Trung Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District, decided to bar all the balconies.
He says: "At first I hesitated because it is not good to install iron bars. But I cannot watch out for thieves forever."
The bars do have doors but he keeps them locked. The keys to them are placed in each room, right at the entrance to the balconies. Binh calculated it takes around a minute to open a gate, but did not anticipate other situations and risks in case of a fire.
Two kilometers away, the four-story house of 75-year-old Nguyen Van Tien's family in Quan Nhan Street, Trung Hoa Ward, is also fenced with iron bars.
The bars have an exit door, but when the local police came on Friday morning to check fire safety, the door was fastened with steel wire and opening it proved difficult. The police told Tien to remove the bars and buy fire extinguishers and gas masks.
The bars on one floor have a tiny exit door through which escape will be difficult in case of a fire.
In 2021 the city People's Committee issued regulations for fire prevention and safety in houses. If a house has six or more floors including a basement, and only the front door to exit, it needs to have at least one emergency exit in a balcony or window in the front.
If the exit is set in steel bars or a net, it must have a minimum size of 0.6 x 0.8 m.
There are no specific regulations for emergency exits for houses with less than six floors though they have to follow general fire prevention and safety provisions.
A tall tube house on My Dinh Street, Nam Tu Liem District, with barred windows. There is an emergency ladder in the middle but it does not look convenient for use in an emergency.
Mai, a tenant living in this building, fears a quick escape down that ladder will be difficult if there is a fire.
Many houses on Ho Dac Di Street, Dong Da District, only have a single exit in front with their windows and balconies sealed off by iron bars.
Lieutenant Colonel Do Anh Quyen, deputy chief of the Bac Tu Liem District Police, says many people seek to keep out thieves but forget about fire safety. Firefighters often take long to extinguish fires in tube houses whose balconies and windows are barred, he says.
"To rescue people inside, the only way is to cut through the iron bars. But sometimes it takes a long time to cut them, which makes it hard to save people in time."
