'My three boys and mum were left to die'

Sharjah: "My children and mother suffocated to death. They were not given help," said a father who lost his family in a fire that ravaged his home last week.

Ahmad Abdul Kareem, an Emirati who lives with his small family in an old rented house in Sharjah, told Gulf News that his three boys and mother were left to die in the fire that broke into his home in Al Nasiriya area. He said Sharjah civil defence did not do enough to rescue his family, a charge officials have denied.

A senior civil defence official said they reached the house in two minutes.

"Our team did its best to douse the fire and prevent it from spreading to other houses," he said.

Abdul Kareem said his three sons Omar, 7, Mansour, 5, and Jasem, 3, and their grandmother died in the blaze that broke out in the kitchen where the housemaid was cooking, according to police officials.

The three brothers and their grandmother are likely to have suffocated while sleeping in their room.

"The civil defence's main station is only a minute away from our home. The team came unprepared as they were not even wearing suits to protect themselves from the fire," he said. He said the team did not even have a ladder.

The devastated father said the team refused to enter the house to rescue the family because of fears that the house would collapse.

"The pleas of my brother and the neighbours to the civil defence to enter the house to rescue the children and the grandmother fell on deaf ears," Abdul Kareem said.

"My neighbours tried to remove the air conditioner from my children's room to let the smoke go out," he said.

"Two men from the civil defence tried to put the fire out using a hose but they did not try to open the door. My mother was found dead behind the door. She tried to open it, but it seems she had inhaled a lot of smoke."

Abdul Kareem said he was on his way back from Saudi Arabia where he had gone to perform Umrah when he was informed of the incident.

"I was only two hours away when my wife phoned me telling me the sad news. I called my brother and police, but it was too late," he said.

Abdul Kareem said his mother came to stay with them only a day before the incident.

"My mother came to stay with the children as my wife was in hospital giving birth to our fourth baby," he said. His wife gave birth to a boy the same night her other children passed away.

Abdul Kareem refuses to blame the maid for the fire.

"I cannot accuse the maid. I was told that she tried to douse the blaze, but she failed and eventually fled the blaze," he said.

According to the neighbours, the maid locked the door and waited outside.

Abdul Kareem who is staying in his brother's house in Falaj Al Muala has urged the authorities to investigate the death of his family.

"I want the authorities to question the civil defence, who were afraid to enter the house fearing it could collapse on them," he said.