A particular 15-year-old Iranian boy named Ali Landi from Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province has caught the imagination of the country for a heroic act that cost him his life. The teenager was laid to rest on Friday with full state honors after succumbing to third-degree burns he sustained while saving two elderly women from a burning house in his hometown of Izeh. He really saved the lives of two elderly women with selflessness and self-sacrifice.
He was hospitalized in Taleqani Hospital of Ahvaz with severe third-degree burns, affecting 91 percent of his body. He was later transferred to Imam Musa Kazem Hospital in Isfahan. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution conveyed condolences and sympathy to the family of Ali Landi. President Ebrahim Raisi also has hailed him as a ‘national hero’ and then said that his ‘story of selflessness’ must be narrated through generations.
Ali was visiting her aunt at her place as a guest on October 10, 2021, when, at 6:00 pm, he heard screams from the adjacent apartment block. Ali immediately went to the neighbor’s house where he saw a middle-aged woman and her mother were caught in a blaze caused by a gas cylinder that had burst into flames. Ali took the cylinder to take it away from the two women. He was throwing it away when the liquid gas leaking from the cylinder poured on him and caught fire. Ali Landi who is just 15-year-old died in hospital with severe burns on the 24th of September 2021.
A funeral procession was held for the national hero on Saturday, the 25th of September 2021. He was then taken to his final resting place in his hometown, Izeh. Undoubtedly, the story of heroic Ali Landi really showed that ‘age’ is actually not a determining factor for becoming a national hero. He definitely gains respect from all over the world.
Sources: Iran Front Page, Alarabiya News, Twitter Press TV.