Muscat: Four Omanis died in a fire incident in Nizwa province on Tuesday, the Public Authority and Civil Defence (PACDA) announced. Another person sustained severe injuries.
While no information was forthcoming on how the house caught fire, a PACDA official confirmed the accident claimed the lives of two boys, their father and a relative — a girl.
“Another person was seriously injured as a result of smoke inhalation,” PACDA added.
The Ministry of Education sent out a condolence message to the family of the deceased. The father was an Arabic teacher.
The online statement read: “The Ministry of Education mourns the death of Professor Abdullah Bin Mohammad Al Hussaini, an Arabic language teacher at Mousa Bin Ali Primary School, who has passed on to his Lord today [Tuesday] with two of his sons.”
PACDA urged citizens and residents to exercise caution while dealing with electrical appliances and other devices to avoid risks related to short circuits.
Officials at the PACDA also urged all families to install smoke detectors in their homes. “It can save lives,” the official said, “especially in the summer when fires are more common”.
In November, 2017, eight women were killed and one person sustained serious injuries as a fire engulfed a house in Al Salam area of Barka province, 69km from Muscat. The deceased included a mother, 35, and her five daughters aged between 7 and 15, her sister, 28, and the housemaid, who was an African national.
A case of fire occurs every three hours in the country and 23 per cent of them are reported in residential areas, according to the National Centre for Information and Statistics. Most of the fire incidents are caused by faulty, counterfeit or ageing electrical items, including cables, according to the PACDA.
