Mother and children climbed up the balcony to escape the burning house.

Hanoi Seeing the fire raging from the first floor, Minh Tam and her three children climbed over the balcony to the neighbor's house, while her husband helped his elderly mother climb down the ladder.

At around 5am on May 17, a fire broke out on the first floor of a four-story house at number 44, lane 125, Vinh Phuc street, Ba Dinh district. At that time, there were 5 people in the house, including Minh Tam, her husband and two children on the 3rd floor, and the grandmother on the 2nd floor.

Rooms in the house were on fire. Photo: Contributor — Rooms in the house were on fire. Photo: *Contributor*

When her 12-year-old son knocked on the door to report the fire, Tam and her husband woke up with a start. Rushing outside, Tam panicked when the floors were filled with smoke. Quickly returning to her room, she went to the bathroom, got a wet towel, covered her nose and went to get the key.

"I intended to go down to the first floor to open the door but saw a big fire with smoke billowing up like a furnace, so I had to go to the balcony to call a passerby and throw the key down to ask them to open the first floor door," said Ms. Tam.

After the first floor door was opened, many neighbors came to help put out the fire. Tam and her three children climbed over the balcony to the neighbor's house to escape.

mother and children climbed the balcony to escape the fire. — Tam and her three children climbed over the balcony to the neighbor's house when the house was on fire. Video : *CTV*

At the same time, Mr. Dao Nguyen Quang (Ms. Tam's husband) climbed over the balcony of the 3rd floor to go down to the 2nd floor to rescue his 78-year-old mother. At this time, she was out in the hallway waiting to be rescued. A neighbor carried a ladder over to help bring the old woman down to the ground safely. Meanwhile, Mr. Quang climbed back up to the 3rd floor to check on his wife and children.

"Everything happened in just about 10 minutes. When we escaped, the fire continued to burn," said Quang, adding that this was the first time he had experienced such a terrible life-and-death moment.

Tam and her three children escaped through a neighbor's balcony. Photo cut from video — Tam and her three children escaped through a neighbor's balcony. *Photo cut from video*

Five hours after the fire, Ms. Tam was still shaking, but "was glad that the whole family escaped." "Luckily, we did not install an anti-theft iron frame. If we had decided to install it, I don't know what would have happened," Ms. Tam said.

Her family's house is about 40 square meters wide, with 4 floors and an attic. It is a solidly built tube house. Each floor has a balcony, from which you can climb to the neighbor's house.

Receiving a fire alarm from the people, dozens of soldiers and four fire trucks arrived to extinguish the fire in about 8 minutes, completing the job at 5:20.