FURTHER to my letter about a fire in a power station at Mecca, Saudi Arabia (HAS, May 25), I did take, and still have, a photograph of the electric cable that had shorted on to a fuel pipe and started the blaze.

My translator (oddly, an Egyptian) said to me later: “Mr Reynolds, they have let those ten people go.”

I did not understand what he meant until he explained: “They arrested ten Shiite Muslims for arson in the power station and they were due to be executed by beheading, until they saw your photo and knew it was an accident.”

It is unusual for a firefighter to save the lives of ten people who were never involved in a fire.

Mind you, I never got a thank-you from them.

E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill, Co Durham.