A TRAGEDY was narrowly averted when a Bahraini father braved fire and thick smoke to rescue his family from their burning home yesterday.

Mahmood Ahmed, 33, got home after taking his daughter Zara, six, to school to find the ground floor of his three-storey home ablaze.

His wife, who was taking care of the couple’s two other young children on the first floor, was completely unaware about the fire spreading through the property beneath her.

Neither was his 28-year-old sister, who was asleep in her bedroom on the ground floor.

“We’ve never had electrical problems before so the fire caught us by surprise,” Mr Ahmed told the GDN.

“When I saw the fire I woke my sister up and ran upstairs to save my wife and children.”

The fire broke out at around 6.30am and is believed to have been caused by a short-circuit

It completely gutted the ground floor of the property, in Isa Town, and caused extensive smoke damage upstairs, except for one room that was untouched.

Firemen managed to extinguish the blaze before it could do further damage and Mr Ahmed required hospital treatment for smoke inhalation.

However, he said he was thankful that his wife, sister and two sons – four-year-old Mohammed and two-month-old Ahmed – survived unscathed.

“Thank God nobody was injured or harmed, except I had to go to the emergency room because I was experiencing suffocation from the smoke and my lungs were filled with carbon dioxide,” he told the GDN.

The property is also home to Mr Ahmed’s brother Ammar, 37, but he was at work at the time.

It is believed a faulty light fitting was responsible for the fire, which consumed the family’s furniture and other belongings downstairs.

Mr Ahmed, an Interior Ministry corporal, estimated the cost of repairs could reach BD3,000 and said it could be another month before work was finished.

The family is now hoping the Southern Municipal Council will provide support, including temporary accommodation until the house is once again habitable.

“All our property is destroyed except for in one room the fire didn’t reach,” added Mr Ahmed.

“We currently have nowhere to stay, as my mother and father previously passed away.

“We’re looking for an apartment somewhere as an alternative residence.”