Regarding the house fire in Ho Chi Minh City that killed two and injured five, Cho Lon Ward Police, in coordination with specialized units of the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department, cordoned off and examined the scene on September 17 to determine the cause of the disaster.
Among the victims, Nguyen Thi T. (66) is currently receiving medical treatment at the Burn Department of Trung Vuong Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.
According to T., when the fire erupted, she was asleep in the ground-floor living area near her 95-year-old mother, N.T.G. The ground floor served as parking for the family’s motorbikes and bicycles, while the upper levels were used as communal living quarters and bedrooms.
At around 1:20 a.m. on September 17, while the household was fast asleep, T. was startled awake by a violent blast suspected to have originated from an electric bicycle charging on the ground floor, just five meters from where she lay.
The scene of the fire
The neighborhood where the tragedy struck (Photo: Provided by Police)
T. bolted toward the front glass door, screaming that a fire had broken out. Upon reaching the threshold, she discovered the exterior iron gate was locked from the outside. As she turned back to fetch the keys, fierce flames engulfed the living area and leaped to two other vehicles. Fire swept across her face and arms in a terrifying flash.
T. desperately wanted to pull her elderly mother, G., to safety, but given the 95-year-old’s frailty and restricted mobility, she felt utterly paralyzed. The most agonizing pain, she said, was not the searing burns across her face and hands, but knowing that her mother and 35-year-old daughter-in-law did not survive.
At that moment, neighbors spotted the inferno and rushed over, using their bare hands to pry the iron gate apart just enough to wrench T. out through a narrow gap.
Four other family members narrowly escaped by leaping through windows and off the rooftop terrace onto adjoining neighboring houses. Emergency responders evacuated T. and the four other survivors to hospitals. Among the five injured, T. sustained the least severe wounds, while the remaining four suffered critical burns and are undergoing intensive care at Cho Ray Hospital.
Victims undergoing emergency care (Photo: Cho Ray Hospital)
A nearby neighbor recounted waking up around 1:30 a.m. to find the alley cloaked in dense, choking black smoke.
“The blaze broke out around 1:30 a.m. When I woke up, pitch-black smoke had swallowed everything, and fire engines had already pulled in. Neighbors assisted by dialing emergency services. We watched firefighters rush in to pull people out,” she recalled.
Another neighbor noted that the power grid cut out as the fire took hold, plunging the dark alley into complete obscurity.
“I saw three fire trucks arrive. The street was pitch black with the power out, somewhere past 1:00 a.m. Since earlier this year, almost every household here had equipped themselves with fire extinguishers,” the neighbor added.
Emergency services determined that the fire broke out at approximately 1:23 a.m. inside a multi-level tube house featuring a ground floor, a mezzanine, two upper stories, and a corrugated iron roof, covering an area of more than 200 square meters inside an alley along Pham Huu Chi Street, Cho Lon Ward. Seven residents were inside when the inferno sparked.
The fire raged violently across the ground floor. A cluster of vehicles and household belongings cluttered the space, obstructing primary escape routes.
Ho Chi Minh City Fire Police dispatched seven fire engines and nearly 50 firefighters to the scene, coordinating with ward police to fight the blaze and mount search-and-rescue operations for trapped occupants.
Firefighters smashed through brick walls with sledgehammers to vent dense smoke and thrust fire hoses through the breaches to suppress the flames and locate victims.
First responders breached walls to pull trapped residents from the blaze (Photo: Provided by Police)
Minutes later, the fire was brought under control. Five burned residents were extracted and rushed to emergency care. Elderly mother N.T.G. and the granddaughter-in-law died trapped inside. G.’s body was recovered on the ground floor, while the younger victim was found on the second floor. The fire gutted furniture and interior belongings across an area of roughly 150 square meters.
Authorities noted the structure was an individual urban tube house where the ground floor served as parking for gasoline motorbikes and electric vehicles, while upper levels housed sleeping quarters. When police arrived, thick smoke and heavy fire had already sealed off the first and second floors.
A narrow alley hampered access for large firefighting apparatus. Because the disaster occurred late at night while victims were deep asleep, detection and emergency reporting were delayed. Officials confirmed that massive volumes of toxic smoke significantly reduced visibility, creating severe hazards for ongoing rescue and fire suppression efforts.
(Source: kenh14.vn)
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Source: Vietnam Insider