- BOY SMASHES WINDOW TO ESCAPE FLAMES
- FATHER RESCUES DAUGHTER AFTER SHE RAISES ALARM
- HERO NEIGHBOURS PRAISED
- FAMILY LOSE ‘EVERYTHING’
Three members of the same family escaped from a house fire in Hanham on Sunday morning, including a teenage boy who injured himself after leaping from his bedroom window to escape the flames.
Corey Male, 15, pictured, a pupil at Hanham High School, was this week in intensive care in Frenchay Hospital, suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation.
His six-year-old sister Leah alerted her father Mark Sawyer to the fire at about 6.45am, and he got her safely out through the rear of the house in Wilshire Avenue.
Mr Sawyer, who is Corey’s stepfather, then tried to go back in to get him but the flames and smoke proved too much.
Neighbours shouted to Corey to get out, urging him to smash the window. He used a golf club that was in his room to smash the glass and leaped out where the neighbours tried to cushion his fall.
Six firefighters wearing breathing apparatus tackled the blaze, which Avon Fire & Rescue Service believe started accidentally as a result of a candle being left unattended. The semi-detached house, left, was gutted.
Corey’s grandmother Linda Male, from Willsbridge, said: “Corey is in intensive care at Frenchay. He already has asthma and the smoke didn’t do him any good. He also has a very bad broken ankle and foot and torn tendons. When they get his breathing under control then they can operate.”
Mrs Male said that her daughter Tara, Corey and Leah’s mum, had been doing a shift at the care home where she works so had not been at the house at the time of the fire. Tara’s daughter Courtney, 14, had been staying overnight with Mrs Male.
Mrs Male and her husband Pete thanked the neighbours – her son-in-law Roger Cole and her grandson Kieran, 17, who live opposite, Daryl FitzGerald, a paramedic who lives nearby, and another neighbour called Maurice – for helping to save Cory’s life.
“If it wasn’t for their quick and heroic actions, there surely would have been a serious tragedy. We can’t thank you enough,” said Mrs Male.
Mrs Male said that Tara and her family had “lost everything except for the clothes they stand up in” as a result of the fire.
She put out an appeal on Facebook for anybody in the building trade to help if they could and by Monday night had received lots of responses. Among those offering help are builders, roofers and carpenters. “I can’t believe how many nice people there are,” said Mrs Male.
She also expressed a wish that the BBC TV show DIY SOS might like to help the family rebuild their wrecked home.
Pictured above are Tara and Mark at their wedding six years ago, with Corey and Courtney
