Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg
A man in China was seen on March 13 clinging to his wife on the balcony while their flat burned and he appeared to have visible injuries on his body.
The husband died nine days later on March 22 after suffering severe burns to 98 per cent of his body during the house fire in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, according to the woman’s sister and doctors.
Kept wife safe
The man, Chen Chaochan was trying to keep his wife, Wang Xueyu, away from their burning unit on the third floor.
The husband could be seen holding on to this wife tightly over the balcony.
The couple were waiting for firefighters to arrive.
The fire reportedly occurred at 6am.
Thick smoke could be seen billowing from the unit.
Both of them were rescued eventually.
But the man suffered from a ruined airway and other burn injuries.
His wife had suffered 96 per cent burns to her body.
She has to undergo additional surgeries but is in stable condition, the wife's sister told South China Morning Post.
What happened
The woman could not get out of the bedroom when the fire broke out and ended up on the balcony.
Her husband, who was in the room at that time, grabbed her as she was kept hanging outside the balcony away from the blaze, said a witness.
When the woman was pulled from the balcony by rescuers, she begged them to “save my husband first”, according to a Weibo post by the Nanjing fire department on March 14.
The family has yet to tell the injured woman about her husband’s death.
Married more than a decade
It was reported that the couple had been married for over a decade and had three children together.
The three children were not living with their parents when the blaze occurred as they are raised by the deceased man's parents.
The couple shared a rented flat with four other families but only their room caught fire in the early morning.
No one else was injured.
The family raised 1 million yuan (US$157,000) through the crowdfunding platform Shuidichou to help cover their medical bills, SCMP reported
Follow and listen to our podcast here