The building comprised two interconnected blocks, one with two storeys and the other with three, situated down a 2m-wide alley, with 12 rooms for rent.
The courtyard was reportedly used for selling and fixing electric bicycles.
A neighbour, who declined to give her name, told AFP she heard an “explosion like fire crackers”.
“I thought there was a fight, or something hitting the window. I ran down and saw the fire.
“Many of the neighbours had run out of the alley, crossing through other neighbours’ houses. We were so, so scared.”
She said the building’s landlord had rescued his daughter-in-law and a grandchild from the flames.
One survivor who lived with his wife on the second floor told news site Dan Tri that they awoke as fire and smoke began rising fiercely from the first floor into the hallway outside their room.
“The heat from the fire was absolutely terrible,” the man, who declined to be named, said.
“The smoke and fire were so intense, my wife and I went back to our room, crawled into the bathroom, and I used a wet towel over my nose to breathe.
“After about an hour of doing that, we were rescued and taken to the hospital.”
EXPLOSIONS, SCREAMS
Another neighbour, Ngo Thi Thuy, said she saw bright flames rising up through the cracks of the building’s corrugated metal roof.
“Fire particles kept flying, the smoke was so thick that it was impossible to see anything,” Thuy, 40, told state news site VNExpress.
“There was the sound of explosions and some screams. The screams were coming from inside the burning house and surrounding houses.”
Along with her other neighbours, she poured buckets of water onto the roof – but said the smoke only rose higher.
Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire, the latest deadly blaze to hit the communist country.
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