(VOV) - A 4-year-old boy was burnt to death in a fire that broke out at a petrol station in Ho Chi Minh City’s Go Vap District on May 21.
Nearly 550 fires, explosions in four months Bomb possibly causes forest fire in Danang The ill-fated child was Vu Manh Duy, who was sleeping in the station’s store when the fire occurred at 3:45 pm at the filling station 4/34 located at the junction of Nguyen Oanh and Nguyen Van Luong Street in the district’s Ward 17.
At that time, the station was receiving petrol from a petrol tank truck of the Southern Food Company, whose driver was Tran Van Thiet, 48, of Tan Phu District, HCMC.
Witnesses said that they saw petrol spill over from the station area to the roadway nearby and that some loud explosions were heard before the fire broke out.
The fire caused a panic among local residents and passers-by, who tried to escape.
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| The petrol tank truck of the Southern Food Company |
Many people tried to extinguish the fire with a number of fire extinguishers but they failed. The fire then spread rapidly to the café located next to the station.
Nguyen Thi Luu, 29, the café’s owner, tried to escape with her 2-year-old baby in her arms. She didn’t have enough time to take Duy out of the station’s store, which was also consumed by the fire.
The fire also burnt several motorbikes at the station before it was put out by the firefighters who were called to the scene.
The overflow of petrol might be caused by the recklessness of Thiet and his assistant while they were discharging the petrol from the truck into the gas station’s reservoir, said Senior Lieutenant Colonel Tra Van Lao, deputy head of Go Vap District Police.
The overflowed petrol might catch fire from a burning cigarette or from sparks emitted from the engine of a vehicle that was running on the street at that time, he said.
The police are investigating the cause of the fire.
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| The scene of the deadly fire |
