Manama: The Saudi hero who saved more than 50 people by pushing a burning car from a petrol pump last week in Riyadh, lost his mother and two siblings to a fire that broke out in their home on Sunday.
His mother’s husband was also killed in the fire that was reported at 7.21 am, prompting the civil defence to dispatch teams of fire-fighters.
He jumped into his car and moved the burning vehicle away from the petrol pump, averting a major explosion that would have engulfed the people at the station premises including a crowded shop and an ATM.
Sultan won praise and was received by the Emir of Riyadh Prince Faysal Bin Bandar who saluted his courage and his sense of sacrifice to help avert a catastrophe.
The Emir offered him a new car to compensate for his, which was slightly damaged after its front tyres caught fire during the daring rescue attempt.
But as Sultan was praised and lauded on Saudi media, news on Sunday about another fire brought with them a tragedy about his own family.
His parents were separated and Sultan lived with his father in the capital, near the house where his mother who took up another husband lived, Saudi news site Sabq reported on Sunday.
According to police reports, the fire at the home was caused by a short circuit in the living room on the ground floor and the flames went up resulting in the suffocation of the house dwellers who were asleep.
Social media users expressed their sympathies and offered their condolences to Sultan and his family while many insisted that the tragedy was “linked to the evil eye”, resulting from the fame achieved by Sultan and the extraordinary that was heaped on him by officials and common people.
