Heroic dad died after running back into burning house to save Paw Patrol-loving son

A heroic dad died after a vain battle to save his three-year-old son from a fire ravaging their house, an heard today.

Dad Naemat Esmael, 51, died two days later after desperately trying to reach his three-year-old son trapped in the burning home. Little Muhammad, who loved and Paw Patrol, was found dead in a bedroom of the family home after the fire ripped through the property.

Widowed Sharmeen Ahmed, 40, said she would have preferred to die herself than to lose her toddler son and her husband in the devastating . Businessman Naemat, who was described as "the best dad", was unable to save the youngster who had been having a nap when the flames took hold.

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An inquest heard dad Naemat had been in the shower when the fire broke out in one of the upstairs bedrooms of the house in July last year. Sharmeen had been loading laundry into a washing machine when she heard "the sound of a ball smashing against a wall" and saw flames coming from her daughter's upstairs bedroom.

Nurse Sharmeen said shouted upstairs to her daughter as well as Naemat and Muhammad to leave and dialled 999 as she went outside. She tearfully told the inquest: "I thought and was expecting that Naemat would get into the room to grab Muhammad to come outside.

"If I had known that this incident would have happened I would have gone there myself first thing first. It would have been much easier for me to lose my life there and then than to go through all this sorrow." The inquest heard Sharmeen tried to re-enter the property but was stopped by neighbours.

The inquest heard her daughter escaped the blaze but suffered smoke inhalation and their other son was not home at the time of the fire in July last year. Mrs Ahmed said seeing the tears of her surviving children "every single night" was too much to bear.

"I always go through sorrow every single day," she said. "When I go to town centre to see things that Muhammed used to enjoy or like or to see a mother holding their son's hand - all to me this is another death. I am living a death every single day experiencing this."

Asked if smoker Naemet could have been having a cigarette inside the house before the blaze, Mrs Ahmed said: "Never, never" adding that he would always smoke outside "even before I gave birth." Father Naemat was treated by paramedics on the front lawn in Swansea, South Wales, but tragically died in hospital two days later.

The inquest heard he suffered 81 per cent burns to his body along with multiple organ failure and severe inhalation injuries. Son Muhammad died from exposure to the flames and things burning around him in the house.

Detective constable Jonathan Holding told the inquest at Swansea Guildhall that the cause of the fire could not be determined. He said that Naemat had worked as a school teacher in Kurdistan and since moving to the UK had previously ran a restaurant and shop as well as his own landscaping business.

Mr Holding said: "Naemet loved his family life with his wife and children and had very special bond with his children often spoiling them rotten and showering them with affection. There was a special bond between Naemat and Muhammed and Muhammed often hugging him and hanging off his head and shoulders." The Swansea inquest, before coroner Kirsten Heaven, continues.