75-year-old dies in house fire in Oman's Saham

Muscat: A fire broke out in a house in the North Al Batinah governorate, resulting in the death of an elderly citizen. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The teams of the Civil Defence and Ambulance Department in the Wilayat of Saham in North Al Batinah Governorate responded to a report that a fire broke out at dawn on Sunday, August 22, 2021, in a house in the Wilayat of Saham in the village of Abu Dhurus. The firefighting teams were able to put out the fire that resulted in the death of a citizen.

Hamad bin Khamis Al Sinani, from the Wilayat of Saham in the Governorate of North Al Batinah, spoke exclusively to the Times of Oman about the details of the fire that occurred this morning in the house of his deceased brother.

“The fire broke out around 5:45 am while people were performing the dawn prayer.  We heard from others about the fire in my brother’s house, so we rushed to try to save him using the fire extinguishers in one of the schools near my brother’s house. But because the fire broke out in the bedroom, where my brother was, and which had mattresses, blankets and a sponge bed, it prevented us from controlling the fire outbreak.”

Hamad Al Sinani pointed out that his brother Mohammed bin Khamis Al Sinani, lived alone in the house. He was not married so he did not have children.

He was around 75 years old, and could not move unless someone helped him to sit or stand, as well as to go to the bathroom or to sleep, so the family had appointed one of the Asian workers to take care of him.

“On Sunday morning, the worker went out to perform the dawn prayer, as usual, at 4:40 am, so no one was with my brother, and the fire broke out around 5:45 am. We rushed to my brother’s house trying to put out the fire and save him, but unfortunately all our attempts failed because of the force of the fire,” Hamad said of the incident.

Teams from the crime scene and criminal investigations of the Saham Police Station, as well as from the wilayats of Sohar and Liwa, came to the site before the body was transferred to Saham Hospital, to investigate the causes of the accident.

Hamad Al Sinani, said that the body was transferred to the Police Hospital in Muscat Governorate to complete the rest of the procedures.