Indian family in UAE escapes unhurt in a building fire

Eight members of an Indian family, including an octogenarian paralysed man, had a miraculous escape after a fire broke out in their residential complex in Abu Dhabi, according to a media report today.

The fire broke out late on Saturday night in the five-storied building the Navy Gate area, where Saju George John, his wife Kochumol Mathew, their four children and his elderly parents had been living for past several years, the Khaleej Times reported.

When the family from Kerala was rushing to safety from their second-floor flat, John's father, Georgekutty, 84, who has been paralysed since 2013, slipped off his wheelchair and fell while coming down the stairs at the first floor.

Also, his 74-year-old mother Soshamma, who was behind her husband, son and daughter-in-law and carrying important documents, like passports, started panting due to thick blanket of smoke and sat down in the stairway.

The family began shouting for help when civil defence personnel heard their cries and rushed up to evacuate them to safety, the report said, adding that John's four children managed to rush down to safety.

"The fire broke out late at night, and the elevators had shut down. It is a five-storey building, and fortunately, we live on the second floor. We had climbed down one floor and while going to the next, my thumb got jammed into the wheelchair," John was quoted as saying in the report.

"Luckily, someone had opened the main door at that time, and the civil defence authorities heard our cries for help. A few officers rushed up the stairway and immediately carried my father, my mother and us to safety," he said.

In the melee, when John's father fell down, he shouted for the first time since 2013.

"It was a terrifying moment because I haven't heard my father speak since 2013. When he fell, he shouted for the first time since," said John, while recounting the incident.

Fortunately, his father only suffered visible head wounds, and none of the injuries was internal, which was later confirmed by doctors following a scan in a hospital.

John's father had collapsed in the bathroom in 2013 and suffered a severe cerebral haemorrhage that left him completely paralysed.