Hero saves family from arson attack
Published: February 14, 2007
A hero saved his family from a horrific arson attack at his Great Yarmouth home just days after having major heart surgery.
Peter Gibson led his wife Tina, three-year-old daughter Saffron and stepdaughter Bethany, 14, from the smoke-filled house in Wellesley Road before returning to put out the blaze, which started just after midnight on Sunday morning.
The 54-year-old plumber had to be given oxygen at the scene by firefighters and was treated at James Paget University Hospital with his wife and the two girls for smoke inhalation.
He had only returned home from Papworth Hospital last Friday and was recovering following a life-saving quadruple heart bypass operation.
Mr Gibson said: “When I woke up and heard the smoke alarm going off I just thought Bethany had burnt the toast, but I got up and found the bedroom was full of smoke.
“I walked into the landing and it was black with smoke. I helped Bethany from her room, grabbed Saffron and led the girls and my wife down the stairs.
“There were flames coming through front door and along the hall and
I could smell petrol so realised the
fire had been started deliberately.”
Mr Gibson also had to help Tina from the house after she fell down the stairs, injuring her knee.
Despite the danger, the couple returned inside to put out the blaze with buckets of water.
They could not get to the phone but a passing motorist called the fire brigade and ambulance.
“I suppose it was foolish to go back, but the adrenaline just kicked in and you do it. All I could think about was saving our possessions” added Mr Gibson.
“I left the girls in the back garden and put out the fire on the floor first and then the door, so the fire was just smouldering. It was only once I had gone outside again that I was overcome with exhaustion and started coughing up black soot.”
The family, who had rented the house from Suffolk Heritage for the last year, have been found somewhere else to live as they no longer feel safe there.
Their furnishing and clothes were damaged in the fire, which caused extensive smoke damage.
Since the fire the couple, who married 18 months ago, have been suffering from stress, but are relieved just to be alive.
Mrs Gibson, 33, said she was proud of her husband’s calm and quick-thinking actions. “If Peter had not been there I don’t think we would have got out. He picked up Saffron and helped me even though he was very weak. He was a hero that night, but whoever did this is so cowardly.”
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