Meet the hero who used a hammer to smash the wall to save people, causing a stir in Hanoi

On the 29th of Tet, Dong Van Tuan, (21 years old, from Truc Khang, Truc Ninh, Nam Dinh ), packed his things on the car, carrying peach blossoms to go home with his mother. After a 3-hour drive, the young man arrived home. Tuan's mother saw her son happily coming to pick him up after several months apart.

Taking down his things, Tuan washed his hands and went inside to light incense for his father. For Tet, Tuan and his mother's simple house had not prepared anything, only a pot of soaked sticky rice in the corner of the yard and a row of dong leaves that his mother had washed and wiped carefully, waiting for him to come home to wrap the cakes.

Tuan watched his mother busily preparing rice in the kitchen, silently thanking her that another year had passed and she was still healthy. After a hasty lunch, the mother and son started wrapping the cakes in time to boil them. After wrapping more than a dozen cakes, the neighbor next door brought rice over to ask for help.

"Every year I wrap cakes for the whole neighborhood," Tuan shared with a smile as his hands deftly tied the strings.

Image of Tuan using a hammer to smash the wall was captured by locals (Screenshot).

While Tuan was busy wrapping cakes in the yard, his mother, Mrs. Tong Thi Dong, carefully cleaned the certificates of merit in the house. They were the result of the time Tuan bravely risked his life to break down a wall to save people in a fire. Looking at the certificates of merit, Mrs. Dong smiled, proud that her son had grown up and become a useful person to society. She was also relieved that she had fulfilled her promise to her husband and raised her son to be a good person.

After wrapping the cake, seeing his mother quietly caressing the certificate of merit, her eyes looking up at his father's altar, Tuan felt filled with thoughts.

His father died early, and his mother struggled to raise Tuan alone. To make a living, Tuan had to leave his hometown to go to Hanoi to work, leaving his old mother at home alone. Every time he thought about it, he couldn't help but worry, but he had to accept it, just hoping that one day life would be more stable, he would return to his hometown to open a small shop, and live near his mother.

Hero in the dark

At 00:00 on May 24, 2024, while eating in his rented room, Tuan suddenly heard a shout of "fire", accompanied by a loud explosion like an electrical short circuit and a strong burning smell. Without hesitation, he hurriedly grabbed a mini fire extinguisher and ran to the scene, hoping to help everyone put out the fire. However, when he arrived, the fire was raging and could not be controlled.

"I had to run back out into the street and shout to see if anyone was still trapped inside," Tuan recalled, his voice still calm as he recounted that moment.

After shouting "Is anyone else up there?" several times, Tuan suddenly discovered a hand stuck on the second floor, reaching out and waving for help. Without hesitation, he shouted loudly, calling on people around to find ladders and tools to support. "There were many people helping me, some carrying ladders, some holding hammers," Tuan shared.

Tuan was sad and disappointed when everyone turned their backs on him for selling online (Photo: Nguyen Ngoan).

The 21-year-old man quickly climbed up the ladder with the help of people around him. At first, he tried to break the glass door with his hands, but there were iron bars blocking the way, so he had to use a sledgehammer to break the wall.

"Receiving a sledgehammer from the people, I used all my strength to break the wall. At that time, the people inside saw me breaking the wall and shouted even louder. I could only shout for them to step back to avoid being hit by bricks and stones," Tuan said. He still clearly remembers the panicked eyes and voices of the victims, the heat of the fire, and the raging smoke from the fire that seemed to want to swallow him.

Tuan banged on the wall until he was exhausted, then someone else took over. After about 3-4 minutes of continuous work, they rescued three people, including a man, a woman and a child, and brought them out safely. At this point, the fire was raging fiercely, and there was no time to hold it back. He and the people around him, without protective gear, had to retreat, making room for the firefighters.

At 5:00 a.m. on May 24, 2024, when the fire was under control, Tuan went back to his room to take a nap. At that time, the image of him shirtless, using a hammer to smash the wall of the second floor of the burning house was widely shared on social networks. Tens of thousands of likes and comments poured in, people called him a "hero" or "Thor".

After that event , dozens of missed calls continuously came to Tuan's phone. Suddenly being called a "hero" on social networks, this made him - an introvert, not used to the attention - feel confused. Tuan tried to avoid the press's search.

"At that time, I just needed a long sleep," the young man shared.

The area where the fire broke out in Trung Kinh in the early morning of May 24, 2024 (Photo: Ngoc Tan).

The young man left his rented room and went to a friend’s house in Long Bien district to find a peaceful sleep. When he turned on his phone again, he received consecutive calls from the authorities and the press. Tuan also continuously received certificates of merit for his brave actions.

Everyone praised him, and many people even texted and called Tuan to ask for his account number to transfer the "bonus". However, he refused, affirming that he was still healthy and could work to support himself. Tuan hoped to save that money for the victims of the fire.

Faced with the praise from the online community, Tuan just thought this was the right thing to do, anyone in that situation would do the same, there was nothing to praise. At that time, to him, saving people was above all. But only when looking back on the incident did Tuan feel scared. Scared that if something happened to him, how would his mother in the countryside live. Luckily, everything was fine.

The image of Tuan using a hammer to smash the wall to save someone went viral (Photo: Anbecks).

After the night of saving people, Tuan did not dare tell his mother, for fear of worrying her. But that silence caused a funny misunderstanding in his hometown.

When the district police came to his house to give him a certificate of merit, Tuan's mother thought her son had gotten into a fight and quarreled so much that the police had to come to her house. It wasn't until the neighbors came to tell her that he had saved someone that she learned the truth.

"My mother doesn't use a smartphone so she didn't know about it," Tuan said with a laugh. She was very proud of her son's good deed and always cherished those certificates.

Redirect online sales

Before the fire, Tuan had just moved to the house at Lane 119 Trung Kinh for three months. He worked as a motorbike taxi driver to make a living, Tuan's work started at dawn and lasted until late at night.

"I accept to transport people and deliver goods. Whenever there is an order or a customer, I drive. Every day I drive hundreds of kilometers, whether it is sunny or rainy, the work is still very hard. I use all the money I earn to support myself and send it to my mother in the countryside," the young man shared.

After the fire, someone contacted Tuan, offering to help him build an online sales channel to improve his life. After many days of thinking, Tuan agreed, because the motorbike taxi job was unstable and did not provide a stable income, while he still had an old mother to take care of.

He personally experienced the products, even spent money to buy the items to have the most impartial view. Each item Tuan sold clearly stated the advantages, disadvantages, and prices so that anyone who found it suitable could buy it.

Tuan usually sells goods in the evening and takes the opportunity to make clips and post them on his personal TikTok channel (Photo: Nguyen Ngoan).

Every day, Tuan spends 2 hours live streaming sales from 9pm to 11pm on TikTok channel with more than 100,000 followers.

"I mainly sell household goods," the 21-year-old shared. Thanks to selling, his life has changed a lot and his income is more stable.

However, Tuan realized that being loved by everyone was only temporary. Sales work was risky and highly competitive, while he had no expertise. Therefore, the young man planned to study electricity after saving up some capital, return to his hometown to open a shop, and live near his mother.

Half a year after the fire at the boarding house in Lane 43 Trung Kinh Street (Cau Giay District, Hanoi), which killed 14 people, Tuan is still haunted by the cries for help. Many sleepless nights, he had to move to another place to find peace. Occasionally, Tuan returned to the old place, but everything had changed, life was still bustling as if nothing had happened, only the closed house was the only witness.

His train of thought was broken, Tuan hung the certificate of merit in his mother's hand. This year, his income was more stable, Tuan prepared for Tet more fully than usual. The young man shared that after the incident, his brothers, neighbors and neighbors loved him more, and this year would be a happy and warm Tet with his mother.

A plot of land over 200 square meters with two blocks of houses with many tenants located deep in Trung Kinh alley, Cau Giay district caught fire fiercely at around 0:30 on May 24. About 50 fire police from the city, Cau Giay district, Cau Giay 113 police and Trung Hoa ward police were mobilized. 60 minutes later, the fire was extinguished.

About 5 lodgers and 5 members of the homeowner's family were rescued. At 3:30 a.m., the rescue and transportation of bodies ended. 14 people died, including 2 members of the homeowner's family and 12 lodgers; 6 people were injured.