Two foreigners have been praised by the local authority for their bravery in rescuing two children stuck at a guest house that caught fire in central city of Đà Nẵng.

The 31-year-old Valeria, a Russian, and 46-year-old Jean Christophe, a French man, on Wednesday were granted the merit certificate at the city’s Liên Chiểu District.

On Tuesday, at about 10:30am, local residents detected plumes of smoke rising from Bảo Hoàng Guest House located on Kinh Dương Vương Street in Liên Chiểu District.

When the fire broke out, the 12-storeyed guest house was closed for repairing, so no guests were present inside. However, two children of the owners were trapped in the house, which was locked from outside while their parents were away.

On hearing the screams for help from the local people, Valeria and Jean Christophe, who were residing in a house opposite the Bảo Hoàng guest house, dashed to the terrace of the next door house and then climbed into the guest house to rescue the two victims.

Valeria broke the door to avoid being choked by the smoke, but sustained injury to his hand and suffered suffocation and unconsciousness.

The fire was later extinguished completely, and Valeria was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment.

The two children were brought out to safety by Jean Christophe and the local firefighting force.

"At that time, like everybody else at the scene, I just wanted to do something to save the two little children before the fire spread quickly. We don’t do that to be rewarded or become famous. Fortunately, the two children are fine,” Jean Christophe was quoted by e-newspaper Zing as saying.

According to the initial investigation, the incident was caused by a short circuit in the air conditioner on the third floor of the house./.

( VNF/VNA )