He died in blaze of glory
Updated: 2008-01-07 07:30
Story About a Real Man, a Real Hero
Zhu Wensheng's biggest regret is that he never praised his son. "I never praised him, not even after he won all those awards. I was too strict with him," says the 61-year-old father of Zhu Xiaolei.
Xiaolei was one of the three firefighters who gave his life to save others' from the deadliest fire in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region since 1994. Zhao Yu and Gao Feng were the other two. The scene: a 12-story mall, where the fire broke out, and a 20-story hotel, where it spread, in Urumqi on January 2.
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"He was everything we had, yet we have lost him," says the retired manager of a company affiliated to the Xinjiang branch of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation. After they got the tragic news, Xiaolei's parents, both retired and both suffering from heart disease, fainted a couple of times. So great is the shock that even a mention of their son's name makes pain visible on their faces.
Xiaolei's uncle Liang Chun is equally shocked but perhaps more stable to talk. "My heart is broken," says the brother of Xiaolei's mother. "He was a typical boy. He loved to play with toy guns and slings as a child." Xiaolei grew up watching movies about military heroes who gave their lives to save the country, soldiers who didn't think twice before sacrificing themselves to save others. "A firefighter is a soldier in peace time," says Liang. "He fights disaster and saves lives. And that's precisely why Xiaolei was drawn to the job."
Xiaolei's colleagues, too, have only praise for him. "If you couldn't complete it, he said, then it's an attitude problem," says Su Long, recalling the inspiration that his senior Xiaolei was. Su, 18, is undergoing a two-year training at the fire station, and failed to complete a 5-km race in 2006. "Zhu Xiaolei encouraged me to excel not just through physical power, but also through mental strength. His words still linger in my mind and will help me overcome more challenges in future."
His colleagues, however, say he was a strict leader despite being very friendly and kind to them. He was the deputy chief of the unit, and designated a captain. They admire him for keeping his troubles and frustrations to himself, and never allowing them to interfere with his work.
"He was up at 7:30 am, and worked till 11:30 pm when he went on his rounds to check the dorms and offices," says Zheng Jie, 22, a young firefighter from Shandong Province. "He would often tell me to read," and started classes for firemen last year to introduce advanced computer skills and improve management at the fire station.
Jiang Shaojie, Xiaolei's roommate for two years, says work had been the center of his captain's life. The last time they talked, on that fateful Wednesday, Xiaolei shared his New Year resolutions: improving knowledge about equipment, practising more and performing better. That would have been when their office shifted to a new location on January 1, 2009.
Xiaolei was studious and hardworking, as the small wardrobe next to his pillow shows; his personal stuff - books and magazines on firefighting skills and equipment - differentiating him from his colleagues. He loved singing military songs and playing romantic melodies on his guitar.
At 172-cm, Xiaolei was athletic and energetic, and had won a fire department swimming competition. He graduated from a college in Langfang in Hebei Province, majoring in Fire Science and Fire-fighting, and joined the Urumqi fire department in 2004. He was an optimist all the way despite the responsibilities he had had to shoulder.
Xiaolei grew up in a family of first-generation migrants to Xinjiang. His parents had shifted to the region in the 1950s. And his greatest responsibility as an adult was his mentally challenged sister, who was born with biological defects.
Sometimes she would venture out of the house and lose her way. "The captain loved his sister so much that he used to be scared of receiving calls from home at odd hours because he feared his sister could have gone missing again." At times, he would have to search for days before finding her.
"His father taught him to be honest and help others," says Liang. "Xiaolei used to say that he would rush to a fire as long as he could save a life, and didn't care for his own."
But his devotion to work cost him dear in his personal life last year when his girlfriend of four years broke up with him. "Girls like company," Jiang says. "But the captain was too attached to his work and couldn't afford to give her enough time. At times, he left her midway through dinner. The breakup was a big blow for him. He never really recovered from it."
"It was Zhu Xiaolei who saved me," says Li Jian, who had gone to pick up something at the mall. "I couldn't even thank him."
Former fireman Wang Taijun was on the other side of a firefight on Wednesday. A construction contractor now, the 55-year-old had just come out of shower in his 15th-floor hotel room when the power supply snapped. He didn't realize what had happened until half an hour later, when the receptionist called to tell him to get out of the building as fast as possible. The smoke in the corridor told Wang the story. And since he knows how deadly smoke can be, he covered his nose with his leather jacket and ran down the dark staircase. "I couldn't see anything. I just kept running down until I could go no further."
He had reached the fifth floor, and he thought it was all over. And then, he saw a light coming in from a window at a distance. He ran toward it, broke the glass with his bare hands and crawled out on to the cornice. "I was bleeding profusely, and it was freezing outside. But I knew the firefighters were there to save me," Wang says, his hands wrapped in bandage.
"It's shocking to hear about a death, and heartbreaking when the dead could be the very people who saved you a while ago." Wang was seen waving from the fifth floor, and was rescued by firefighters.
Geng Junhu, a hotel owner, has the last word on the firefighters: "In today's society, anyone willing to sacrifice his life to save others is a true hero."
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