A Vietnamese retired senior police officer along with his wife and daughter was killed after failing to escape from a big fire that raged a shoes shop in the southern city of Can Tho in the Mekong Delta region early Sunday.

The flames were detected at some 2 am at MT shoes shop located on Nguyen Trai Street in Ninh Kieu District.

After being informed of the inferno, 72 local firefighters aboard eight fire trucks were dispatched to the scene. The conflagration was put under control two hours later.

Five employees of the shop fortunately escaped after they climbed to the adjacent house and another was rescued from a tree nearby.

However, retired colonel Doai Phuoc Trieu, his wife Vo Nguyen Phuong Nga, a retired health official, and his daughter policewoman Doai Thi Phuong Dao could not escape. They were found dead in a restroom upstairs.

Policeman Doai Phuoc Men, Colonel Trieu’s son, luckily survived since he was not at home at the time of the accident.  

Initial investigations found that the house’s ground-based front space was leased for the shoes shop while the dead victims lived in the back and upstairs.

Further investigations are underway.

The fire breaks out at around 2 am on July 6, 2014. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Eight fire trucks with 72 firefighters on board are dispatched to the scene. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The fire is put out two hours later. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Inside the fire-hit house. Photo: Tuoi Tre

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