In endeavoring to save her two sons and two daughters from fire which engulfed the family's home recently, a mother exhibited marvelous courage and made the supreme sacrifice for her children. Ahlam, the 11-year-old girl who survived the fire in Makkah's Al-Masfala District, narrated the story of her mother's courageous sacrifice. The brave woman could not save her son although she managed to get her two daughters and her other son safely out of the house. The girl said she woke up choking from smoke. She woke her mother who took her and her siblings to the door, extinguishing the fire blocking their way. “The whole house was on fire,” Ahlam said, “and we tried to put it out, but it just kept spreading. I was screaming for help while my mom carried me and told my brother to break a wooden barrier that separated the house from the roof of the next building. My brother managed to make a small hole in the wood through which my mother pushed me and said she would follow me and continued with my brother Mohammad rescuing my other brother and sister. Moments later, my brother and sister were out safely, but I could not hear my mom's voice. I looked through the hole and saw only smoke. We stayed there crying until our neighbors arrived and took us away. Then the Civil Defense firefighters arrived.” The father who was at work at the time said he felt something was wrong throughout the day, until finally he received a call from his wife's brother telling him the bad news. Captain Tarrad Al-Otaibi, acting spokesman for the Civil Defense in Makkah, said firefighter teams arrived at the scene minutes after the fire report, adding that the fact that the urorganized district increased the difficulties for tankers in reaching the place. The teams used long hoses, propelling power and other techniques to reach the core of the fire and put it out. Tankers could get no closer than 345 meters from the scene of the blaze. Colonel Jameel Arbaeen, Director of Civil Defense in Makkah, said firefighters had to extend hoses along narrow alleys and meandering stairs which separated the fire from the point reached by the tankers as the house was not on the main street. He noted that the afflicted family had turned their roof into residential rooms and a kitchen covered with zinc and wood which contained inflammable materials. The fire started while the family was asleep after which it spread to the kitchen which is located between the door to downstairs and the other rooms where the family slept, which prevented them from going down. The only obstruction for firefighters was the narrow alleys that were designed for pedestrians as in all unplanned districts.
