(Hanoi) At least 14 people died and three others were injured in a fire that ravaged an apartment building in central Hanoi early Friday, police in the Vietnamese capital said.
The fire broke out around 12:30 a.m. Friday (1:30 p.m. Eastern Time, Thursday) in a building in the densely populated Cau Giay district where several universities are located.
Rescue teams had to force the lock of the exterior gate and break windows of the building to rescue seven people trapped inside.
According to press reports, the building’s courtyard was used to sell and repair electric two-wheelers.
A neighbor, who requested anonymity, told AFP she heard an “explosion, like fireworks”.
“Many neighbors ran out of the driveway, passing other neighbors’ homes. We were so, so scared,” she testified.
The fire “destroyed many electric two-wheelers and (other) two-wheelers in the courtyard,” Hanoi police said in a statement.
“At 1:26 a.m. (2:26 p.m. Eastern Time), the fire was completely extinguished. The rescue forces discovered 14 people dead,” added the same source. Three people are hospitalized and receiving emergency treatment.
The affected building consists of two interconnected buildings of two and three floors with 12 rental apartments, at the end of a driveway only two meters wide. The building’s corrugated iron roof collapsed during the fire.
In photos taken Friday morning, the ground in the courtyard appears littered with charred objects.
Explosions and screams
A neighbor, Ngo Thi Thuy, said she saw bright flames rising from the building through the roof. “Embers kept flying, the smoke was so thick that it was impossible to see anything,” she told state news site VNExpress.
“(We heard) explosions and screams. The screams were coming from inside the burning home and from neighboring homes,” she added.
Along with other neighbors, Ngo Thi Thuy says they poured buckets of water on the burning roof.
“It was so horribly hot in there,” Pham Quoc Viet, a rescuer who rushed to the scene, also told state news site VNExpress.
“Firefighters did their best to search for survivors. They rescued an elderly woman and then brought four other people out. We checked carefully, there was no one else inside,” he reported.
Authorities are investigating the causes of the fire.
In September 2023, a fire in an apartment building in Hanoi killed 56 people, the deadliest in two decades in this Southeast Asian country. At least three children were among the dead.
Vietnam has experienced several other particularly deadly fires in recent years in recreational areas.
In September 2022, a karaoke bar near the southern city of Ho Chi Minh City caught fire. 32 people lost their lives and 17 others were injured. The owner was subsequently arrested on suspicion of violating fire safety standards. The Prime Minister had ordered the inspection of all places considered at risk.