Six houses along with collateral property were burnt down in Hanoi, as a fire erupted on Thursday morning while the owners were absent for the Lunar New Year holiday.

The flames started at around 6:00 am, the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, in a house on Nguyen Khang Street, Cau Giay District, and quickly spread to five other neighboring homes.

All of the houses were used for business operations ranging from the sale of dog meat and paintings to catering services and others, of which some were run by their owners while others were tenanted, according to Pham Anh Tuan, a resident living on Nguyen Khang Street.

“Only one of the shopkeepers stayed in the city while the rest had returned to their hometown to celebrate the Lunar New Year,” Tuan said.

He added that firefighting police in Hanoi dispatched nine fire trucks to the area some 20 minutes after being notified and put out the flames about one hour later.

“Officers had to break the locks of the houses, for there were no owners to move their property outside,” the man said.

Property of one of the houses was destroyed by the flames. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Dozens of gas tanks of the six stores were promptly moved out to prevent the situation from getting worse.

However, many other household appliances and furniture as well as the ceilings of the houses were ravaged by the inferno.

The fire also led to the disruption of power and telephone service, as well as the cable television of several other residences in the vicinity, according to those living nearby.

Dinh Trung Kien, an engineer from Vietnam Cable Television Corporation (VTVcab), said that the flames had burnt down several cables, causing the loss of signals in many houses on the streets of Tran Duy Hung, Keangnam, and Vu Pham Han.

“The number of affected subscribers was estimated at thousands. The corporation has mobilized its personnel to solve the issue and basically reconnected the wires to restore their services for the people,” Kien stated.

The Power Company of Cau Giay assigned 30 technicians to fix the problem, as 20 households were deprived of electricity supply, and was able to bring back power at 1:00 pm the same day.

The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

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