'My life is at an end': Cousin recounts Abu Dhabi blaze victim's last moments
Mohammad Azeem Khan rang his cousin minutes before dying after fire broke out in the lower portion of the building.
Abu Dhabi: "‘I cannot talk any more; my life is getting [to] an end, please pray for me', these were the last words he told me over the mobile phone before succumbing to smoke inhalation," said a cousin of Mohammad Azeem Khan, 54, who died in a fire on Thursday in Abu Dhabi.
"He called me up as soon as he came to know about the fire in the lower portion of the building," Tareq Hussain told Gulf News on Saturday.
Khan, a Pakistani national, and his compatriot died in an early morning fire that gutted an old residential building in the Tourist Club Area in Abu Dhabi city.
Asked why he couldn't escape, Hussain said: "There is no point in asking it. It's God's will. Otherwise what can I say about a man who slept peacefully the previous night?"
He said that when he saw the body in the morgue there were no injuries or burns which suggests that he died of smoke inhalation.
"He [Khan] was on the eighth floor of the building. After his first [phone] call, I asked my cousin, who stays nearby, to rush to the spot to help him; he did, but in the midst of the chaotic situation he could be a mute spectator only," explained Hussain, who works for a government-related organisation and lives on Airport Road.
"In the next call, his words were not clear; apparently due to breathing problems [smoke might have engulfed his room]. Somehow he concluded saying: ‘Please pray for me, my life is getting an end'," said a tearful Hussain.
Khan is survived by his wife and four daughters aged between 15 and 24, according to the cousin. Two of them are married, he said.
"The family is financially sound now thanks to Khan's three decades of hard work in the UAE since 1977."
He worked for a shipping company.
The Pakistani Embassy is extending full assistance to the relatives of both victims to repatriate their bodies, Dr Shehzad Thaheem, Community Welfare Attaché, said.
"Most probably the bodies could be repatriated by Sunday evening on Pakistan International Airlines which offers free tickets for such purposes," he said.
