"The boy was rolling around, fire burning from his face down to his feet. My husband had to use his foot to push our child out the bus door to escape", Nguyen Thi Ngoc Bich, 35 years old, recounted in shock the sleeper bus fire on National Highway 1, passing through Hung Thinh commune, Dong Nai, which killed seven people on the morning of 21/7.

Ngoc Bich's family of four was among the five injured victims. She and her husband, Nguyen Van Thong, 37 years old, are currently receiving treatment at Thong Nhat General Hospital (Dong Nai). Their two children, aged two and seven, suffered burns and were transferred to Children's Hospital in TP HCM.

Ngoc Bich recounts the moment she, her husband, and two children escaped the burning bus after the accident in Hung Thinh commune, Dong Nai. Photo: Dinh Van

Lying in a hospital bed with multiple burns, Ngoc Bich shared that last week, she and her husband took their two children to their paternal hometown in Ninh Chu (formerly Ninh Thuan, now part of Khanh Hoa) for summer vacation and swimming. On the evening of 20/7, the entire family boarded the bus to return home in Long Binh ward, Dong Nai.

The bus departed from Phan Rang intersection at 10 p.m., traveling along National Highway 1 to An Suong bus station (TP HCM), a distance of over 350 km. Along the way, the bus dropped off passengers at several stops.

The oto had 24 sleeping berths, divided into two levels, numbered A1 to A12 for the lower level and B1 to B12 for the upper level. Ngoc Bich and her husband each held a child in adjacent compartments A7 and A8, located in the middle of the bus. In the early morning, while sleeping, she woke up suddenly to a loud collision.

"Everyone was panicked, scrambling from the upper level to the lower level to find an exit. Just a few seconds later, fire erupted at the front of the bus, and smoke quickly engulfed the passenger compartment, causing everyone to cough, choke, but still try to run to the door", she recalled.

While many passengers at the back repeatedly hit the windows but could not break them, Ngoc Bich yelled at her husband to take their two children towards the bus door, even though the front of the oto was already glowing red. Thong carried their daughter and urged their son to run through the flames.

As they reached the door, fire from the front seats caught their son's clothes, causing the boy to fall and cry for help. The father immediately used his foot to push his son onto the steps to escape the fire zone, then carried him out.

"Once outside, the boy's clothes had melted and stuck to his skin, so people had to pour water on him to cool him down", Ngoc Bich said.

According to Ngoc Bich, in the chaos, many passengers had already escaped. Some people ran to the door but saw the fire was too large, so they turned back towards the rear of the bus, hitting the windows to find another exit. However, they were engulfed in smoke and trapped.

"I was one of the last people to leave the bus. Lying on the roadside grass, I could still hear people screaming, the sound of windows being hit for another few dozen seconds, then it went silent", she said. Just about three minutes later, the fire spread from the front of the bus throughout the passenger compartment, accompanied by several consecutive explosions.

Ngoc Bich's family and other survivors walked about 100 meters to the Bau Xeo gas station to seek help before being taken to the hospital.

The moment the fire erupted and engulfed the passenger bus. Photo: Thanh Huong

The ill-fated bus was driven by Tran Thanh Hai, 41 years old, with assistant Le Quoc Dat, 18 years old. It was carrying 37 passengers, including some children. The bus departed from Phan Rang, scheduled to arrive at An Suong bus station (TP HCM) on the morning of 21/7. The accident occurred after 2 a.m., approximately four hours into the journey, after the bus had traveled over 300 km.

Among the passengers who escaped, Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, 70 years old, recounted hearing a loud collision and the bus stopping abruptly while she was sleeping with her two-year-old grandchild in a compartment behind the driver. Pulling back the curtain, she saw flames erupting in the cabin area.

She hugged her grandchild, intending to run out, but the bus door remained closed while the fire began to spread. When the driver managed to force the door open, she asked him to carry her grandchild out first. She then jumped down and received the child from the driver. "The two of us and several other passengers had just escaped when the fire intensified at the front of the bus", she said.

Bus assistant Le Quoc Dat stated that the bus was operating normally before the accident. Around 1 a.m., after the bus lights were turned off and the air conditioning was on for passengers to rest, he lay behind the driver's seat, planning to wake up at the first drop-off point in Dong Nai.

After 2 a.m., Dat woke up startled when he heard the driver repeatedly shout "fire". "At first, the fire was small, but just 10-20 seconds later, it flared up very high and spread very quickly", he recounted.

The bus door was jammed, only slightly ajar, so Dat kicked it forcefully to open it, creating a path for the first passengers to escape.

In the chaos, Dat and others continuously shouted "fire" to wake up those who were sleeping. He, along with the driver and some male passengers, helped elderly people get off the bus. During the rescue, Dat and the driver suffered burns to their hands and feet due to the heat and molten plastic falling from the bus ceiling.

Debris and glass from the bus alongside scorched grass at the site where the bus collided with a steel guardrail and caught fire. Photo: Phuoc Tuan

The bus caught fire in a densely populated residential area. Although many residents rushed to help, the flames spread too rapidly, rendering all attempts to approach unsuccessful.

Nguyen Van Cham, 52 years old, one of the first people on the scene, said the bus crashed into a guardrail, and then fire erupted from the front, quickly engulfing the entire vehicle.

"Thick black smoke made my eyes sting even from a distance. I saw many people inside scratching at the windows, waving their hands for help, but I couldn't get close because the fire was too intense", Cham recounted. Afterward, he rode his moto to the nearest police station to report the fire.

Dong Nai Fire Prevention, Fighting, and Rescue Police Team Area 5 dispatched two fire trucks and 12 officers and soldiers to the scene. By approximately 2:40 a.m., the fire was brought under control.

Most victims died from being trapped and suffocating from smoke inside the bus. At the scene, broken glass was scattered everywhere, luggage and shoes were burnt to ashes, and many rows of sleeping berths were reduced to steel frames.

According to Dong Nai Police, driver Tran Thanh Hai confessed that he fell asleep, causing the bus to crash into the guardrail. After the collision, fire erupted from the underside of the front of the bus, near the fuel tank.

The 24-seat sleeper bus involved in the accident belonged to Nam Lu Trading and Transport Services Co., Ltd., operating on the Phan Rang (Khanh Hoa) - An Suong bus station (TP HCM) route. The bus was manufactured in 2026 and is valid for inspection until 27/1/2028.

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