Taiz, Yemen — It was around 5am in the Yemeni city of Taiz last week, with the morning’s quiet interrupted only by the tweeting of birds and a few construction workers leaving home for work. Then, an explosion shattered the calm and neighbours rushed to extinguish a large fire in Najib Abdullah’s home.The residents in the Beer Basha area of the city were rescued from the house, which was completely engulfed in flames, but had serious burns.They were taken to Al-Thawra General Hospital Authority, which has the city’s largest emergency unit for burns and plastic surgery.The cause of the explosion was the lithium battery used for the solar power system, which many homes in Taiz rely on.Dr Mohammed Saeed, the head of the emergency department at Al-Thawra Hospital’s burns centre, told Al Jazeera that a mother and two of her children died, their father remains in intensive care, while a third child was discharged from hospital.He said the cause of the blaze was not an isolated incident and his burns unit regularly treats victims of battery explosions, leaving victims severely disfigured or worse.“We don’t know the exact technical reasons behind these solar energy fires, but the centre frequently receives patients from Taiz city and neighbouring governorates suffering from burns caused by …
