It’s been nearly a week since the tragic fire that struck a religious school in Datuk Keramat took place. 21 young students and 2 teachers had their lives cut short by this horrific incident.
The nation has been mourning the sudden deaths of these children, and everyone followed the case closely since it began. Now, the story of one man who helped save some of the victims has surfaced, inspiring many Malaysians.
20-year-0ld Sufian Emmad was touted as a hero for saving the lives of three students who managed to escape the blaze. Sufian, who lives next door to the school, told Harian Metro that he heard people screaming early that morning.
Source: Harian Metro
“At 5.15am, when my mother was washing rice in the kitchen, I heard sounds of people yelling about 100 metres from my house,” he told the daily.
“So, I ran upstairs with my other neighbours and saw the tahfiz next door engulfed in flames. When I saw the fire, we immediately ran to the school to help.”
Sufian and his neighbours wanted to help but didn’t know how, so they waited on the ground looking at how the students were going to escape. Not long after that, he saw that some students found a way out by breaking and pulling out the window grilles. They then climbed down the drainpipes on the side of the building.
Source: Channel NewsAsia
“The first student panicked while climbing down and fell to the ground. We quickly rushed to help him up. The second student also wanted to jump off so we laid down a carpet for him to land on, but he still got hurt so we had to carry him too,” said Sufian.
“The third student wanted to jump from the roof, but it broke as he jumped. So, I helped him up too. That was when a vein on my finger was badly cut by a piece of glass.”
Soon after that, the fire and rescue department arrived at the scene, which was when Sufian sat down to rest since he was badly injured.
“I was bleeding a lot, so one of the students who managed to escape the fire tied a piece of cloth around my wound to stop the bleeding.”
“I really wanted to help some more, but the fire was already too big.”
Sufian was later taken to Hospital Kuala Lumpur in an ambulance, where he had to undergo an operation to repair his severed vein and was warded for 3 days.
Source: Facebook
Thankfully, Sufian is on the road to recovery now and has since been discharged from the hospital.
“I was really scared when I saw the fire, but I had to be brave to help whoever I could at that time.”
His story has since gone viral on Facebook, but he wants netizens to know that the viral post about him wasn’t completely true.
“The post said I saved 14 people, but that’s not true. In reality, I just saved three.”
Regardless of how many people he saved, this man is definitely a hero who managed to prevent three lives from being lost that day. He’s definitely a hero to us!
We hope Sufian and the other victims who survived all make a complete recovery from this traumatic incident.
Also read: Arrested Teens in Tahfiz School Fire Case Showed No Remorse, “Didn’t Even Say They Were Sorry”
