AC Unit Blocked Fire Escape For Mum Filmed Shielding Kid

Story ByJohn FengSub EditorJoseph GolderAgencyAsia Wire Report

Video Credit: AsiaWire

A mum who was filmed shielding her young daughter from a raging fire in their flat could not escape because their fire exit was blocked by an air-conditioning unit.

She and her husband, who suffered severe burns during the ordeal, had no choice but to huddle in the corner of their balcony burglar bars while protecting their four-year-old daughter from the growing flames.

The fatal blaze broke out in the couple’s fifth-floor flat while they were taking an afternoon nap in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province in South China, on 19th June.

Pictures Credit: AsiaWire

Footage showed flames spewing out the family’s sitting-room window, with the parents seen trapped inside the metal security grille and unable to escape.

Firefighters who put out the flames, and who sprayed the surviving dad and daughter with hoses from the ground, have since revealed the family were just inches away from a fire escape they could not access.

Right next to where the family was cornered, an image shows a fire escape built into security bars.

However, the fire exit is blocked by an air-conditioning unit and also appears be bolted shut by a padlock.

Pictures Credit: AsiaWire

According to reports, the couple could not reach it due to the AC unit, and they might not have had the key to the lock either.

Police are still trying to determine the cause of the fire, as well as who signed off on blocking off the fire exit.

Local media reports the dad was still able to talk when rescuers carried him and his daughter out of the building.

According to the Guangzhou Red Cross Hospital where he is being treated, the dad is in stable condition but sustained severe burns on 50 percent of his body.

There is widespread muscle death on his back and he is unable to move his upper limbs, reports said.

His daughter survived the accident with minor burns to her head.

Neighbours living in the block of flats built in 1975 have revealed the girl is the youngest of four children in the family. The other three were not home at the time of the fire.

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