Police inspect the causes of the fire on April 10.
According to local authorities, the blaze occurred at around 1 am on April 10 in a small alley in Ward 4, My Tho City. Residents discovered the home of Huynh Thi Thuy Tien engulfed in flames and immediately alerted the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police Department.
Efforts to extinguish the fire were hampered by the intensity of the blaze and the house’s location deep inside a narrow alley just 1.5 metres wide. It took firefighters nearly two hours to bring the fire under control, finally extinguishing it around 3 am.
Initial reports indicate that the fire began on the mezzanine floor of the house, which had one ground floor and a mezzanine level, before spreading and completely destroying the structure.
After the fire was put out, rescue teams found four bodies in the debris. The victims were identified as Huynh Thi Thuy Tien (49), her husband Nguyen Minh Hieu (50), her younger sister Huynh Thi Ngoc Dung (47), and Dung’s daughter Nguyen Khanh Huynh Doan (18). Most of the family’s possessions were destroyed in the fire.
On Thursday morning, officials from the My Tho City People’s Committee and other provincial authorities visited the scene to offer condolences to the victims' family members. Forensic investigations and examinations are underway to determine the exact cause of the tragic fire.
