A grieving mother speaks
GRIEVING MOTHER RECALLS EVENTS OF THE NIGHT A FIRE DESTROYED HER YOUNG FAMILY
My children died... I could do nothing, Fujairah’s Salima Al Suraidi says |
H er voice is still raspy due to the smoke she inhaled during the fire that claimed the lives of all her seven children in her home in Fujairah’s Rul Dadna.
Salima Al Suraidi’s throat and lungs still ache, but this pales in comparison to the searing pain she feels at the loss of her sleeping children in the fire that engulfed her home in the early hours of Monday.
The children — four girls and three boys — were aged between five and 13. They included five-year-old twins Sara and Sumaiya. Their father died of cancer four years ago.
Speaking to Gulf News in her first interview after that terrible day, Salima is distraught that she could not save her children. “All my children died and I could do nothing for them,” she said. Each day, she added, is a struggle to get through as memories of her children flood her mind.
On the night of January 21, Salima put her children to bed at 10pm as usual as they had to get up early for school. Her sons slept in a room adjacent to her bedroom. “They begged me to stay back [in their room] and spend some more time with them. We stayed up chatting as they regaled me with tales of what they would do when they grew up,” Salima said.
As the night drew on, she told her children to sleep. “They kissed me and went to bed. A moment later, my son Ahmad came to remind me that I had not said the daily dua of ‘May Allah bless you and keep you safe’. I smiled and said it after which they went to sleep. The room’s door was left open by them because my 13-yearold son, Khalifa, was afraid of the dark and the open door allowed light to filter in.”
Salima retired to her room along with her daughters and took her medication before going to bed. “I went to bed at 11pm, but a little after midnight, I woke up as my twin daughters, Sumaiya and Sara, were suffering from flu and were getting fitful sleep due to cough. I applied some ointment and olive oil to help them get some relief and they went back to sleep,” Salima said.
She fell into a deep sleep due to the medication, which she had been taking after an operation. “At 3.45am, I woke up as I was finding it difficult to breathe. The room was pitch dark. I switched on my mobile phone light and saw my daughter Shouk, who was sleeping next to me, with a fixed stare, unmoving. I went to my twin daughters Sumaiya and Sara and found them dead. I then went to my daughter Shaikha who was sleeping next to her sister in the same room to find her breathing her last.
“I then rushed to the other room where my three sons slept to find my sons Khalifa and Ahmad dead, but Ali was still fighting for his life. He walked to the living room where he collapsed and died.”
Salima kept pouring water on her two children Ali and Shaikha, who were still alive, but her attempt went in vain.
Going nearly mad with shock and grief, Salima ran to the door of the hall, managed to open it after several attempts and cried out for help to the maid before running off to call her brother Rashid.
“I felt myself losing control. I had pain in my chest because of the smoke. My brother rushed to my house, which by then was engulfed in thick smoke. He covered his face with his ghotra as he tried to save my children, but they had already died of suffocation.” said Salima.
Her brother called the police and ambulance services.
Salima said that her sons were polite boys and had been doing well at school. Her eldest daughter, Shouk, liked poetry.
His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, ordered all care and support for the grieving mother.
Salima prays for the souls of her children every day, asking Almighty Allah to give her the strength to endure her loss.
I felt myself losing control. I had pain in my chest because of the smoke. My brother rushed to my house ... He tried to save my children, but they had already died of suffocation.” Salima Al Suraidi | Mother of the children