Fire blocks only escape route for victims of Hanoi karaoke bar fire

Lying in E Hospital, his eyes red and his whole body covered in black smoke, Mr. Nguyen Viet Cuong, 56 years old, residing in Co Nhue 1 ward, Bac Tu Liem district, trembled as he recalled the moment of life and death.

At around 10:30 p.m. on December 18, after a drinking party, he and three friends went to a cafe at 258 Pham Van Dong Street to sing to each other. This is a familiar address that the group often goes to when having parties because the prices are cheap and healthy.

The house is three stories high, has an attic, a frontage of more than 3 meters, and is 10 meters deep. It has been rented by a family from another province for two years to run a coffee shop and a singing service on the first floor. The first floor has two layers of doors, the outside is a rolling door that is always open when there are customers, the inside is a closed glass door with a hydraulic lock that can be pushed in and out.

The second and third floors are where the staff live. The bar is located at the back, next to the stairs leading upstairs; there are two large screens hanging on both walls. There are about 5 tables and 2 small sofas in the shop, arranged on both sides, with a common passage in the middle, which is also the only exit for people inside.

Customers who come to the shop mainly park their motorbikes on the sidewalk in front of the door, which is locked with steel wire. Cars can be parked in front or on the empty lot to the right of the shop. Normally, the shop is run by only the owner's wife and two employees who mix and serve drinks.

When Mr. Cuong's group arrived, the restaurant already had more than a dozen customers. Five to six motorbikes and a car were parked on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. "My group entered the restaurant in the dim light and chose a spot near the entrance. At that time, 2 to 3 tables had people registered to sing, so we had to wait," Mr. Cuong recalled.

Panic run

At 11pm, after 30 minutes of waiting, it was Mr. Cuong's turn. After singing a song, he was startled by a loud bang outside the door. Looking out, he saw a raging fire. Guests, both male and female, stood up screaming and running around. Instinctively, Mr. Cuong ran back into the house, up the stairs to the second floor.

"The stairs still had electricity at that time, so I and three other people ran up and broke the second floor glass to get to the balcony for some fresh air. I then fell to the floor, half-conscious, half-asleep until I was splashed with fire water and fully woke up," Mr. Cuong recalled.

Sitting at the same table with four other people was Vu Van Thanh, 38 years old. When the fire broke out, the whole group panicked and ran in different directions. Seeing the raging fire blocking the exit, Thanh and a few others ran to the second floor, where the fire had not spread much but the thick black smoke caused chest pain and difficulty breathing.

"The electricity went out and it was pitch black. I kept running, running wherever I saw a road until I was exhausted from smoke inhalation and then found a fire hydrant," Thanh recalled.

Gradually regaining his strength, he took off his jacket and stood there, letting the water pour over him until he regained consciousness. The man was then taken to the ground by a fire truck. Being treated at E Hospital for minor burns and smoke inhalation, the man kept wondering, "Will the people who were with him be able to escape?"

At around 11:15 p.m., more than 10 minutes after the fire broke out, Bac Tu Liem District Police dispatched three fire trucks and a ladder truck to the scene. At this time, the fire had spread throughout the first floor, spreading to the one-story, one-attic agricultural and industrial machinery store next door.

Realizing the serious situation, with many people trapped, the City Police Command Center mobilized additional rescue forces, a total of about 10 fire trucks, 10 medical ambulances and the FAS Angle volunteer rescue team.

Fire trucks from Nam Tu Liem, Cau Giay, Thanh Xuan, and Tay Ho districts blared their sirens and rumbled toward Pham Van Dong Street, shattering the silence of the winter night.

The fire department and rescue team split into three teams. One team sprayed water to put out the fire from below on Pham Van Dong Street, from the overpass opposite the karaoke bar. One team climbed up to the billboard of the store next door and broke the corrugated iron to spray water inside. The other team used a ladder to go up to the second floor, then broke the iron fence of the balcony to rescue people.

Groping for victims

By 11:40 p.m., the fire was under control, but smoke was still billowing. Police and volunteer rescue teams in protective gear went deep into the house. 10 FAS Angel members and three ambulances split into two. One group, including Hoang Gia Bao, followed the firefighters inside to bring the body of the unfortunate victim out. The other group was on standby in the ambulance, taking the victim to the hospital.

Bao was assigned to search for victims on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Through the light from his flashlight, he saw everything in the house in disarray and burned down. The air was thick with the smell of smoke, and the heat was sweltering. The wooden railings of the stairs were deformed, and the bricks were heated and shattered every time he stepped on them. Based on his experience from previous rescues, Bao searched the 2nd floor bathroom first.

There, he discovered a body that was almost charred black; another body was found on the third floor landing. "Everything was dark, I almost acted on reflex, searching by stirring around," Bao said.

Police and volunteers have recovered 11 bodies, eight of which were found on the first floor, where the fire was strongest. Five bodies were found in the first-floor bathroom alone. The remaining three were found on the stairs leading to the second floor, the second-floor bathroom, and the third-floor landing.

Personal conflict leads to arson

After the on-site direction of Hanoi Party Secretary Bui Thi Minh Hoai and City Police Director Nguyen Hai Trung, the investigation into the cause of the fire was urgently conducted.

At 3:00 a.m. on December 19, the City Police announced that the fire was caused by arson. The suspect is Cao Van Hung, 51 years old, a permanent resident of Co Nhue Ward, currently living in Dong Anh District.

Hung went to the karaoke bar to drink beer alone at 9:00 p.m. on December 18 and had a conflict with a group of 7 customers. The two sides went to Pham Van Dong Street to resolve the conflict. After being beaten, Hung ran to buy a plastic bucket at Co Nhue Market, then went to a store on Phan Ba ​​Vanh Street to buy 150,000 VND for gasoline, then took a taxi back to the karaoke bar to vent his anger. Stopping his car about 30 meters from the bar, Hung took the bucket of gasoline, opened the glass door and poured it on the first floor and the cars parked in front of the door, then lit it on fire.

The authorities have not yet released the identities or hometowns of the 11 victims. Hospital E, which received 4 of the 7 rescued people, said the victims were admitted in a state of panic, with many wounds and burns on their skin.

Two people with more serious injuries were transferred to the intensive care unit, with difficulty breathing and suspected gas poisoning. They are being examined to determine whether they have respiratory burns. The other two are being treated in the emergency department in less serious condition. One person has minor burns to the eyes and the other has skin abrasions.

A soldier was slightly injured and suffered scratches while on duty at the scene. He was taken to Hospital 198 for first aid and discharged that same night.

This morning, Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long and Chairman of the City People's Committee Tran Sy Thanh inspected the scene, directed the handling of the consequences, and visited the victims of the fire at the hospital.

The Deputy Prime Minister requested units to focus on overcoming the consequences, promptly investigate the case, strictly handle violators as a deterrent; give priority to treating the injured, and promptly provide material and spiritual support to the victims' families to soon stabilize their lives.

On the same day, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh sent a telegram of condolences to the relatives and families of the victims. Along with the request to strictly handle violators, the Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Public Security to strengthen propaganda and crime prevention, especially crimes arising from conflicts.

In 2024, Hanoi experienced many major fires. Previously, on May 24, two houses on a plot of land deep in an alley on Trung Kinh Street, Cau Giay District, caught fire fiercely in the early morning of May 24, killing 14 people and injuring 6 others.