Four children from a Saudi fencing coach’s family died in a house fire at Al-Omran in the Al-Ahsa governorate while they slept.
The fire broke out at the home of Captain Ali Ibrahim Al-Obaid, the coach of Al-Adalah Club’s fencing team, on Saturday night.
Al-Obaid told Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, that his sons had died from suffocation after smoke had risen from the storage room.
He said: “My wife was outside the house while I was sleeping inside, but in a different corner of the house, and I did not feel what was happening at the time.”
He added: “It is a rented house, and we do not know all the details, but according to the Civil Defense report there was an electrical short circuit that caused the fire.” The victims of the fire were Heba, 10, Hussein, 9, Lian, 2, and Rahaf, 1.—Agencies