Rewarding 4 heroes who climbed ladders, broke walls to save people from a motel fire

On May 25, Ms. Trinh Thi Dung, Vice Chairwoman of the People's Committee of Cau Giay District (Hanoi) said that in the afternoon of the same day, the People's Committee of the district decided to unexpectedly reward a group of people with achievements in rescue work in the fire at a motel on Trung Kinh Street.

The four heroes who were awarded include: Pham Quoc Luat (from Ha Tinh), Nguyen Kim Long (Hanoi), Hoang Anh Tuan (Nghia Hung district, Nam Dinh province) and Dong Van Tuan (Truc Ninh district, Nam Dinh province).

Dong Van Tuan (21 years old) said he felt happy and proud of himself because he and three other young men helped save people trapped in the fire.

"Until now, I have not been able to sleep properly because of the haunting events. I have not been able to go back to work yet," Tuan said.

Called a "hero" by many, Tuan said: "I am not a hero. In that situation, anyone would do the same, because the most important thing is to save people."

The house at No. 1, Alley 43/98/31 Trung Kinh caught fire fiercely at around 0:30 on May 24. In just a few minutes, the fire flared up fiercely with many explosions.

The fire area includes a 2-storey house, an attic with an open drying yard and a row of 3-storey houses, each floor has 4 rooms, an open corridor in front. Connecting the two houses is an open yard of about 55m2 arranged to park motorbikes and electric bicycles.

At that time, Mr. Phan Quoc Luat (working in aluminum and glass) had just finished his extra shift as a technology driver. When he returned to his rented room, he heard a loud explosion and looked through the window to discover a fire. Mr. Luat immediately called his wife for help. Looking up, he saw someone waving at the window on the second floor of the two-story house. Mr. Luat shouted, "There is someone on the second floor, find a ladder, hammer and rescue tools."

Mr. Nguyen Kim Long (son of the landlord where Mr. Luat rented a room) immediately took a ladder and hammer to support Mr. Luat.

Bringing the ladder to the place, Dong Van Tuan and Hoang Van Tuan climbed up the wall together, then the two of them pulled the ladder up to the edge of the wall to continue climbing the ladder to the second floor window, where someone was in the room.

Mr. Hoang Van Tuan held the ladder for Mr. Dong Van Tuan to climb up to the window and use a sledgehammer to break the wall to save the person. The bamboo ladder was a bit short and Mr. Tuan was small in stature so the hammer's force to break the wall was not strong enough.

At this time, Nguyen Kim Long gave Hoang Van Tuan another rope ladder so that Dong Van Tuan could climb up the window and hold onto the ladder, continuing to use a sledgehammer to hit the wall.

After using a sledgehammer to hit for a while, Mr. Dong Van Tuan got down so that Mr. Phan Quoc Luat could climb up and continue hitting until the wall was broken, enough for people to crawl out.

Immediately after breaking through the wall, Mr. Hoang Van Tuan went up to help each person in the room get out, first his little son, then Ms. Thu and her mother, and finally Ms. Thu's father. Everyone around helped to bring each person down.

At the same time, units approached the scene, deployed fire fighting, prevented the fire from spreading, and scouts searched and rescued victims.

The forces broke the main gate lock, broke the window to access the inside of the house and rescued 7 trapped people, including 3 injured people who were taken to the emergency room.

By 1:26 a.m., the fire was completely extinguished. Through searching, forces discovered 14 dead people.

On May 25, Hanoi City Police decided to initiate a criminal case to consider the responsibility of the landlord and the state management group in this horrific fire.