On the evening of April 8, a fire broke out in one of the 12-story residential buildings on Sharifjon Huseyinzoda Street in Dushanbe’s Shohmansour district.  A couple of days later, people wrote on social media that before the firefighters arrived, two employees from the "Lanzhou" cafe, located on the building’s first floor, saved people from the fire.  Asia-Plus spoke to them.

Muzaffar Odiyev, 29 years old – the manager of Lanzhou Cafe.  Risking his life, he rushed to help people trapped in the upper floors of the building during the fire.

"At around 7:20 PM, I saw a woman from the cafe window, which faces the building's playground, screaming 'Help!'  I went into the yard and looked up – the building was on fire," Muzaffar says.

The Emergencies Committee reports that the fire started on the eighth floor and spread to the ninth floor.

Muzaffar recalls that after hearing cries for help, he and his friend Muhammad Sulaimonov, a 31-year-old cafe employee, decided to rush to assist the people.

"There was no fire up to the third floor, but on the fourth, black smoke had already appeared. We started knocking on doors and warning people to get out.  We decided to risk it and help those who were still on the upper floors," he says.

His colleague, Muhammad, says he doesn't remember exactly how many people they saved.

"Our main focus was on saving women and children.  The first time we got 11 people out, the second time 7, the third time we rescued an elderly woman and a child, and the fourth time – another family with a daughter and two children aged 5-6 months.  Then, we rescued two Iranians from the 11th floor.  Maybe the number is higher, but I don't remember exactly," he says.

The young man adds that when rescuing the elderly woman whose apartment was opposite the burning one, he had to wet his clothes and enter the fire.

Muzaffar says that some of the residents they saved had burns.  "Two women from the sixth floor had burned hands, and another woman had damaged fingers," he says.

According to the young men, with each passing minute, the smoke became thicker, and it became harder to move inside the building. At one point, the elevator on the sixth floor caught fire.

"With every minute, the smoke became more suffocating.  We were on the ninth floor when two more families came down from the upper floors and joined us.  We had to take a towel from one of the women’s apartments, wet it, and wrap it around the women's heads to get them down.  When we reached the third floor, the firefighters were already there to help us down to the ground.  There were also paramedics on the lower floor," Muzaffar adds.

"How can you be indifferent?"

It is worth noting that the Emergencies Committee reported that "no human casualties were recorded" and that "rescuers saved 6 residents from the burning floors, including a 3-month-old baby and 4 women."  However, nothing was mentioned about the heroic actions of Muhammad and Muzaffar.

The Dushanbe Police Department did not report this incident either.

Muzaffar and Muhammad do not consider themselves heroes, saying they simply did their duty.

"A person is created to help others. Instead of those people in the building, it could have been my family, my children.  There were many children and women in the building who might have been far from their husbands, working or on business trips.  Imagine if my house had caught fire and no one had come to help my family – that would have been inhumane," says Muzaffar.

Muhammad confirms his friend's words, adding that in such a situation, a person’s conscience doesn’t allow them to remain indifferent.

"When a person is in fire, how can you be indifferent? At that moment, you don't feel fear or danger.  We just did our duty. And when you help others, you also get help in return," concludes Muhammad.