Civil Defense officials visit one of the six injured children. — Okaz photo Abdullah Al-Abdali and Ibrahim Khudair Okaz/Saudi Gazette
MAKKAH – A mother threw her six children out of the window from the fourth floor to save them from a rapidly spreading fire that broke out in a building at Rusaifah district in Makkah. Civil Defense and hospital sources said the children sustained several injuries and two of them were in critical condition. When Civil Defense units arrived at the scene, the mother was about to follow her children to escape the thick smoke that filled her apartment. Firefighters stormed the apartment, put out the fire and rescued the woman. A short-circuit was believed to be the cause of the fire. Okaz/Saudi Gazette met the father of the children who provided some details. He said his wife Khadija, 28, called him and told him that they were trapped inside the apartment because of the fire and that she would have to release the children from the window on the fourth floor to save them from choking to death by heavy smoke. He immediately called the Civil Defense who dispatched teams to the site. Fatimah, 3, sustained severe head trauma because the back of her head hit one of the air-conditioners on her way down. She is still in coma. The other children — Safiya, 11; Osama, 8; Nawaf, 7; Hassan, 6; and Muhammad, 2 — were rushed to King Abdulaziz Hospital and Al-Noor Specialist Hospital. The mother suffered from minor smoke inhalation. An investigations is under way to find out the cause of the fire. The director of emergency unit at Al-Noor Specialist Hospital said the hospital was equipped to treat all the cases. He said the condition of the children was reassuring except for the two who still remain in the ICU.
