Online community joins hands to help farmer's family whose money bag burned worth over 100 million

According to Ms. Le Thi Bac in Lien Son hamlet, Thanh Lien commune, at around 10am on August 18, after plugging in the rice cooker in the kitchen, she went out to work in the garden. A while later, she smelled a burning smell and ran in to see that the fire had already started.on firemany things in the house, quickly call for help and try to put out the fire.

The kitchen where the fire broke out. Photo: Huy Thu

At that time, her husband was away, leaving only her and her mentally disabled son at home. Fortunately, the fire was extinguished a while later. The cause of the fire is believed to be an electrical short circuit.fireAlthough the fire did not flare up strongly, it burned many items in the kitchen, especially the money stored in a plastic bucket.

Mrs. Bac said that there were 5 plastic buckets, both big and small, in the kitchen that were burned, in which the bucket containing the bundle of money worth hundreds of millions of dong that her grandparents had saved up for a long time was completely burned, most of the money was almost burned. The remaining stacks of money in denominations of 500,000, 200,000, 100,000 dong were burned to a crisp and could be counted as 26,100,000 dong.

The plastic bucket containing the money was burnt to a crisp. Photo: Huy Thu

When asked why she kept a large amount of money in a plastic bucket, Mrs. Bac said: This is the money her grandparents borrowed and the money her children sent home to prepare to build a house. Because the house above was in disrepair and about to collapse, it had to be supported, and there was no door to open or close, so she did not keep the money but put it in a plastic bucket in the kitchen, where her bed was. "This is the money my husband and I planned to build a house in the beginning of the 9th lunar month, so we did not deposit it in the bank," Mrs. Bac said.

Immediately after the fire, many local people advised her to write a report to the authorities and bring the burnt money of more than 26 million VND to Agribank branch in Phong Thinh commune (Thanh Chuong) to exchange for good money.

It is known that Mrs. Bac’s family is facing many difficulties. She and her husband are raising two sick children: the eldest is disabled from birth, the second is also mentally ill and often wanders around. Currently, her son works in Binh Duong and is returning home by motorbike and is in quarantine at the commune.

On the afternoon of August 20, Mrs. Bac said: I just came back from the bank, I was very anxious, even though the bank did not call, I still went. The bank representative replied that it had not been resolved yet, the bank would notify me if anything happened.

The dilapidated house of Mrs. Bac's family. Photo: Huy Thu

Upon receiving information about the fire, Party Cell Secretary and Head of the Fatherland Front Committee of Lien Son hamlet, Thanh Lien commune, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kieu Trang went to Mrs. Bac's house to verify the incident and wrote an article calling for donations to help Mrs. Bac's family.

Ms. Trang shared that after only one day of calling, children in and outside the neighborhood, benefactors, and the online community had donated 20 million VND. “At first, I thought I would only raise a few million VND, hoping to share the difficulties with Mrs. Bac’s family, but her and her husband’s situation has received help from many people. I will publicly and transparently announce the list of supporters and hand this money directly to Mrs. Bac’s family.”