KOTA KINABALU: A man braved through a burning house to save a family of seven, including small children, but eventually did not survive the ordeal in Labuan early Wednesday (Jan 24).

Gillian Donald had managed to pull the family to safety during the fire at about 4am but he later collapsed.

Labuan police chief Supt Mohd Hamizi Halim said efforts to revive the 41-year-old man using cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) failed.

“The victim was then sent by ambulance to the hospital and at 6.10am, the medical officer confirmed the man had died of suspected suffocation due to over-inhalation of smoke,” he said, in a statement here.

Supt Mohd Hamizi said they were earlier alerted of the fire at Lot 24, Merinding Garden off Jalan OKK Daud at 4.17am.

He said firefighters had managed to put out the fire.

The house, he said, was occupied by seven people comprising six females and a male, three of them children. The victims were aged between four and 67.

Despite the flames growing, he added, Gillian ran into the inferno and successfully pulled each of the occupants out.

“But after the incident, he felt exhausted and fell down.

“The body has been sent to the forensics unit at the Labuan hospital,” Supt Mohd Hamizi said, adding there were no visible injuries on the victim’s body but that investigations were ongoing.

Based on an initial probe by the fire department, he said, the fire is believed to have started from the vehicle belonging to occupants of the house that caught fire which was parked outside before it spread to the house.

He said two of the house's occupants had received treatment for injuries sustained in the fire but that all of them were reported to be safe and in stable condition.

It was learned the two injured comprised a woman and a teenage girl who suffered burns and also passed out after being rescued.