Man in China dies from burn injuries week after protecting wife from house fire
A man in China who was filmed protecting his wife on a balcony while their flat burned died on Tuesday (March 22) morning after suffering severe burns to nearly his entire body.
On March 13 around 6am, Mr Chen Chaochan was trying to keep his wife Wang Xueyu away from their burning home a few storeys above the ground while the couple waited for firefighters to arrive.
He was rushed to hospital after the accident but died nine days later. He suffered from a ruined airway and burns that covered 98 per cent of his body, according to doctors.
Ms Wang Linlin, the wife’s sister, told the South China Morning Post (SCMP) that the wife is in stable condition but has to undergo additional surgeries because 96 per cent of her body was burned.
“She is conscious and can communicate with us by nodding or shaking her head, but she still cannot talk,” she said.
Ms Wang had been stuck in the bedroom when the fire started and climbed out the window to escape onto the balcony.
Mr Chen, who was already there, grabbed her but kept her hanging outside the balcony away from the blaze.
When rescuers arrived, she begged the rescuers to, “save my husband first”, according to a Weibo post last Monday.
The family has yet to tell the injured woman about her husband’s death.
The couple had been married for over a decade and had three children together. They shared a rented flat with four other families – but only their room caught fire that fateful morning.
No one else was injured, and the cause of the fire is still under investigation, according to SCMP.
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