Firefighters rescued a family of five on Saturday morning from a fire breaking out earlier the same day in a five-story house in northern Vietnam.

Preliminary information released by local authorities showed that the five saved by the Police Department of Fire Fighting and Prevention of Hai Phong City suffered from smoke inhalation and sustained burns on their limbs and faces.

The family members reside in a five-story house on Ton Duc Thang Street, Le Chan District, and all of them have been confirmed to survive.

At the fire scene, everything from the ground to the 5th floors of the house was almost burnt to ashes, including the motorcycles and bicycles.

Pham Thi Hoa, 23, a neighbor who first discovered the fire, said after noticing burning smells at about 5:00 am yesterday, she ran out only to see a big flame erupting on the ground floor of the opposite house.

Hoa immediately asked everyone living nearby to mobilize all resources to extinguish the blaze and call the local firefighting force.

"Seeing the conflagration, everyone got together to use hammers to break the door of the house and water to put out the fire, but they failed,” Hoa said.

Pham Thi Ky, 70, who lives near the area, said after hearing people shout at one another to get up for battling the inferno, she went out to see the five members of the family standing on the 4th floor, seeking for help.

"The five were in a state of panic with their clothes covered with black smoke," she said.

According to Ky, the fire might have been caused by a short circuit in the battery of an electric bike which was being charged on the ground floor then.

Hoang Van Khu, chief of the advisory department under the Police Department of Fire Fighting and Prevention of Hai Phong City, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the five people were brought out safely and being treated for burns at the Vietnam-Czech Hospital.

After receiving a call at 5:09 am, the local fire fighting force dispatched four fire trucks and one rescue vehicle to the scene, Khu said.

"When we reached there, the fire already grew fierce with a lot of smoke blanketing the house. Because the house is located in an alley, about 80m away from the street, the rescue team had a bit of difficulty in approaching it," he said.

By 5:30 am, the firefighting force had succeeded in controlling the flame, and started executing plans to rescue the five family members. The firefighters wearing protective gear then entered the house and carried all of them out.

During the rescue mission, a member of the team suffered from smoke inhalation and was taken to the hospital. Currently his health is stable, Khu added.

Reports said all the five people are overseas Vietnamese, including Nguyen Hoang Long, 13, Nguyen Huy Hoang, 18, Huy Nguyen Tat, 25, Cuong Do, 55, Tran Thi Kim Yen, 49.

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