Soldier braves fire to avert tragedy on home front

A soldier and father of four children rushed to the rescue of his wife and his 8-month-old infant as flames engulfed his house in Ras Al Khaimah. Khamis Mohammad Al Qusaidi, 33-year Emarati, sustained second- and third-degree burns to different parts of his body as he literally walked through flames to locate his wife and baby as they cowered in a bathroom fearing the worst. Al Qusaidi said he left his wife and his baby at home on Friday and went to his parents' house to have lunch with them along with his other three children. "My wife and my baby were stuck inside the blazing house which caught fire right after we left. She managed to call me when the fire started at around the time I had reached my parents' home. I returned quickly but had never expected to see what I saw. "The house was engulfed in smoke and fire. It was a terrible sight; for a moment I paused because I didn't know where to start from. Flames were leaping out of the house from every window and every door" he recalled. Risking his life Al Qusaidi was still in the hospital when he spoke to Gulf News MOnday. Ayashia, Al Qusaidi's mother-in-law, described how he had driven back home barefoot on hearing of the fire. Reaching home, she said, he realised that he could not enter the house through the main door. He immediately went to the window of his bedroom. The window had steel grills that he removed with his bare hands. "I felt that my hands would melt away but I was very happy when it came off and I walked through the flames into the bathroom. I held my wife and my infant baby and rushed them out of the house where I fell down on the ground in front of the house. My burns became unbearable. My wife had to call my brother to rush me to Saqr Hospital for treatment. A spokesman for the Ras Al Khaimah civil defence told Gulf News that the fire broke out because of a short circuit in the air conditioning in the living room, from where the fire spread to the entire house. Firefighters brought the blaze under control after they were called in by the neighbours, sources added.