The death toll from a fire at a karaoke parlor in southern Vietnam has risen to 32 and some parts of the building remain inaccessible more than a day later, state media reported.
The fire that began late on Tuesday trapped workers and customers inside the venue in Thuan An city in Binh Duong Province, state media said.
The fire was brought under control quickly, but smoldered into the next day.
Photo: AFP
Vietnam News Agency reported 32 deaths from the blaze as of late on Wednesday and at least one karaoke room and one storage room had not been accessed because the temperature remained high.
Some people were injured from asphyxiation and others sustained broken limbs when they jumped from upper floors to escape the fire, reports said.
Firefighters using ladders rescued others.
Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc extended his condolences to families of those who died, and asked government officials to support the families and quickly find the cause of the blaze.
The preliminary finding was that it was caused by an electrical short circuit and started on the second or third floor.
Survivors of the blaze yesterday spoke of their terror as they tried to escape the inferno.
Do Thanh Tu, a worker at the karaoke parlour, told state media that he was convinced he would die in the fire.
“When the fire broke out, I tried to run down to the first floor, but I saw too much fire there, so I ran to the rooftop to find shelter,” he told the VNexpress news Web site as he lay in hospital in Thuan An.
“I saw people up there, many of them were screaming. We thought we would die. Many people jumped,” he said. “Around half an hour later, rescuers came for us. There was so much smoke I could not breathe.”
Sixty people were inside the 30-room bar when the fire erupted on Tuesday evening. Many employees were sleeping on the highest floor at the time, waiting for their next shift, and saw smoke creeping up the stairs.
Ngan, 20, told VNexpress that the smoke stung her nose and eyes, trapping her and her colleagues inside the room.
Eventually forced onto the roof, they poked their heads through metal bars and waved their hands, hoping someone would see them.
Police at a news conference said that patrons were partly to blame for the tragedy.
“They were drunk. So when the staff at the karaoke bar informed them about the fire ... people in some karaoke rooms didn’t listen,” provincial Police Chief Trinh Ngoc Quyen said.
“There was one room in which a customer pulled an employee into the room and closed the door,” he said.
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