QUNFUDA, 23 August  — Two children and a maid died of suffocation after their house in a Qunfuda village caught fire on Monday. The mother of the household and her two sons escaped the tragedy with only minor injuries. Brig. Abdullah Al-Ghaleby, director of civil defense, told Arab News that the fire broke out following an electricity short circuit while the mother was preparing her children for bed. The mother saved her smallest boys, aged 3 years and 18 months, but the fire consumed her two other children — six-year-old Mallak and four-year-old Hisham.