Religious teacher’s family to remember him as a hero

TANJUNG MALIM: The family of religious teacher Mohd Yusuf Md, 26, who died in the fire at the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah tahfiz centre in Datuk Keramat, will remember him as a hero.

His sister Norazni Md, 37, said the family learnt that Yusuf, the eighth of 10 siblings, had saved some of the students by waking them up as soon as the fire broke out.

“One of the students related his experience to our eldest brother Noorazam, 40, who went to the school on the day of the incident,” she said.

“The boy told him that Yusuf, who was staying on the ground floor, went up to their room on the third floor and woke him up when the fire broke out.

“He told the students to escape.

“Yusuf never made it to safety. We only know that much. We learned about the other details from the news.

“This is a difficult time for us. People have been coming here asking about the incident since yesterday.

“It breaks my heart when I have to repeat the same story about our beloved brother.

“I hope everyone can give us some space after the burial. Let’s leave the investigation to the authorities.”

Norazni, along with her heavily-pregnant sister, Noor Aini, 29, were at their mother’s house in Felda Besout 4 in Sungkai, waiting for the remains of their brother to be brought home for burial.

Noor Aini said Yusuf, fondly known as Abang Chik, was looking forward to the birth of her first child, due to be delivered at the end of this month.

“He had asked me to inform him of the date so that he could take leave and be here when the baby arrives.

“We did not notice anything different as he was his usual jovial self when we met during Hari Raya Aidiladha.

“But I remember that he kissed us, his sisters, on the cheek a lot.

“Apart from mother, Abang Chik was quite close to Norazni as he was the youngest son and one of the two boys in the family,” she said.