Thousands mourn as mum and three children are laid to rest after fire
HEARTBROKEN FATHER IS SUPPORTED BY COMMUNITY AS HE CARRIES BLAZE VICTIMS’ COFFINS TO GRAVESIDE
WITH his arms heavily bandaged and his face badly bruised, Zubair Umerji made the heart-wrenching trip four times.
As mourners lined the route through the cemetery, Mr Umerji carried the coffins of his wife and their three children, who were killed in a house fire in Bolton, to their graveside.
Khadija Umerji, five, her brothers Yusuf, 10, and Hammaad, 12, and their mother Aneesa Umerji, 40, died when the blaze broke out in their terraced house in Rosamond Street on Saturday morning.
Mr Umerji, who jumped from a first-floor window as the fire ripped through the house, was injured as he frantically tried to smash windows and the front door with his bare hands to get back in and save his family.
It’s estimated about 4,000 people from across the country paid their respects to the family at a service at Zakariyya Jaame Masjid Mosque then at the traditional Islamic burial at New Overdale Cemetery in Bolton on Tuesday afternoon.
Fighting back the tears, Simon Greenwood, who was Hammaad’s learning support mentor at Birtenshaw School in Bromley Cross, read out a moving poem he had written in his honour.
It included the lines: “Always talking of his family, really gave him pride.
“No one could ever doubt, the love he had inside.
“These words don’t do him justice, but words never can.
“To know him was to love him, goodnight my little man.”
Imam Maulana Rashid, who led the service, said: “This is what binds us. We are all human beings, we all have the same blood.
“It is sad that we come together on occasions such as these, but we do come together, as Boltonians, Mancunians and as British citizens.”
Imteyaz Ali, spokesman for the Bolton Council of Mosques, said: “There are thousands of people here today who have come together to support this family. I have been in contact with the family and I know it gives them comfort and that they are overwhelmed by the compassion shown by the community.
“It is times like these that we are proud to be Boltonians, proud to see the community come together and proud of the support being shown.”
Following a joint investigation, officers from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service and Greater Manchester Police believe the fire was caused accidentally by a halogen heater in the living room at the front of the house.