Gulf Daily News
Wednesday, 5th November 2014
Email: [email protected]
5
Blaze tragedy man
struggling
By ANIQA HAIDER
A BAHRAINI man who lost
everything in a horrific house
fire that wiped out most of his
close family three years ago is still
struggling to rebuild his life.
n The house in Gudaibiya now
stands gutted and derelict
Mohammed Qaed Hussain Askar’s
83-year-old mother, eldest brother,
wife, a daughter and son were all killed
in the fire that destroyed their home in
September 2011.
It was sparked by a short circuit
in an air conditioning unit while Mr
Askar was at work as chief of security
at Al Safir Hotel.
Three years on, the family home in
Gudaibiya still stands gutted and derelict – despite promises from authorities
that it would be renovated.
“It has been three years and no one
has done anything for me,” said Mr
Askar, who was provided temporary
accommodation in Riffa by
the Human Rights and Social
Development Ministry immediately following the tragedy before moving to a flat in
Juffair paid for by outgoing n From left, Mr Askar’s wife Batool, Mr Askar, daughters Nareman, Maria and Jenan,
MP Adel Al Asoomi for eight son-in-law Abdulrahim Abbas Abdulrahman and son Adel at Jenan’s wedding in 2009
“I want to rebuild it but don’t have the blaze.
months.
“My daughter is living in a enough money, and that’s the reason I
His daughters Jenan and Maria
three-bedroom apartment provided am still waiting for the government to survived by jumping out of a second
by the Housing Ministry, but I feel do it for me.
storey window – as the house had
“I have memories in this house and only one entrance on the ground floor,
ashamed to stay with her, as I don’t
cannot see it in this condition.”
want to be a burden on her.
where the fire broke out.
Mr Askar and his family moved into
“So I rented an apartment and pay
Jenan inhaled smoke and burnt her
for it from my own pocket, as I have the house after leaving their old home hands on a melting window frame
no other option and I don’t want to stay in Sanad in 2006.
as she made her escape, while Maria
His mother Bibi Murad Hussain suffered multiple injuries including a
with any of our relatives.”
Mr Askar said that he wanted to see lived on the ground floor while the first fractured jaw, back and foot in the fall.
the family home in Gudaibiya rebuilt, floor was shared by his wife Batool
Other survivors of the tragedy inEbrahim Haji, 45, and two youngest cluded Jenan’s husband Abdulrahim
as without it he felt “homeless”.
“My heart aches whenever I pass children – daughter Nareman, 13, and Abbas Abdulrahman and another relaby that area and see my house aban- son Adel, 14.
tive Sayed Hussain Hashim, 32.
All four family members died in
doned,” he said.
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