Police in the northern Hoa Binh province on Nov 2 launched a criminal investigation into the case in which a century-old house on stilts, the last of its kind and the heart of the ancient Muong ethnic minority culture, was burned down, and identified the group of tourists whose negligence and irresponsibility caused the fire.

The investigators have identified the two men and two women involved in the blaze as local civil servants and business owners whose names are withheld.

As previously reported, the Lang house, which belonged to a local official and is being preserved at the museum, was engulfed in flames at around 7pm on Oct 24 after a group of tourists built a fire inside the house to cook corns without permission.

When the flame broke out, the group, who had arrived in two cars, panicked and didn’t alert or seek help from the museum staff.

They scrambled into their cars and fled and even dashed their cars at three museum staff when the staff tried to stop them. As the tourists just arrived at the museum, they hadn’t registered their identification details, but a staff member managed to jot down one of their license plate numbers.

The over-100-year-old house, which belonged to a Lang official, a member of the loftiest class in the ancient Muong society, was preserved by a local family for several generations before being handed over to the museum.

Over 200 treasured artifacts kept inside the house which reflect the age-old lifestyles including sets of gongs, shotguns, bronze items, potteries, and bamboo and rattan household pieces have been destroyed completely.

The fire consumed some 90% of the house and resulted in an estimated damage of some dozen billion dong (VND1 billion is equivalent to US$47,170), and an irreparable loss of cultural heritage.