Neigbour’s rush to blaze woman’s aid
Published: January 1, 2007
Brave neighbours rushed to the rescue of a screaming woman trapped in the bedroom of her blazing home.
Residents at Hereford Road, Hill View Estate, Sunderland, were set to fight the flames after hearing their neighbour – who is believed to be deaf and with only partial speech – cry for help from the window of her first-floor flat.
Colin Hunter, who lives below the burnt-out property, said he was on his way to bed when the smoke alarms in his ground-floor flat went off.
Thinking it was a false alarm, the 63-year-old, who has lived there for nine years, ignored it.
“I was about to go to bed when the smoke alarm in my living room and the one in the kitchen went off,” he said.
“I thought it might have been some water leaking from upstairs because they also detect water and it’s happened before, but I decided to open the window just in case.
“It was then that I heard the screams coming from upstairs. I went outside and saw her hanging out of the window shouting fire.”
In a desperate attempt to help her, Mr Hunter said he and another neighbour tried to get into the house while plumes of smoke turreted from the roof.
“The lad next door came along and we were trying to knock the door down but we couldn’t because it’s one of those safety doors,” he said.
“He went back to his house and came along with a ladder to try and get her out. He put it against the window but it wouldn’t reach.
“Fortunately the fire brigade came and bashed their way in and carried her out in time.”
Firefighters rescued the woman from the blaze, which happened on Saturday night.
But as soon as she reached safety, Mr Hunter said she ran back inside to rescue her Bull Terrier Rocky, who he is currently looking after.
He added: “You could see smoke, which appeared to be coming from the roof and inside the house it was coming from the top of the stairs.
“Luckily no smoke came into my house and the fire brigade got here in time. They sprayed water and had a smoke exhaler.
“I think we were all very lucky. I feared my house was coming down on top of me.”
The woman was taken to Sunderland Royal Hospital where she was treated for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters say the house was 15 per cent severely damaged by fire and 80 per cent severely damaged by smoke.
Two appliances from Sunderland Central and two from North Moor fire stations attended the blaze. The cause of the fire is unknown.
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