A Vietnamese American family of three has been identified as the victims of a fatal apartment fire this weekend in San Jose.
Their father is in a coma and does not yet know his wife, Linh My Thi Nguyen, and son and daughter, 21-year-old Thuong Xuan Le and 14-year-old Yvonne Mai Le, are dead.
The Mercury News reports Thuong was a mechanical engineering student at San Jose State University, Yvonne was a second year student at Gunderson High School and the mother and father both worked in the restaurant industry.
A vigil was held for the victims Tuesday night. In August, a Vietnamese American family of three was killed in a mobile home park fire in San Jose. City Council member Tam Nguyen is calling for reforms and greater inspections of rental housing.
“We’re just torn here,” he said. “We’re at a loss for words,” he said.
Meanwhile, the family is struggling trying to find a way to pay for the funeral and the father’s medical needs. Khoa Le is in critical condition, with burns to 70 percent of his body. Their immediate attention is on his surviving mother.
“We want to hide everything from her,” said Phuong Ta, a cousin said to CBS5. “She really wants to see him (her son). But we just keep hiding it, because she has a lot of pain — it’s too much for her to see him right now.”
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