January 5, 2009

A Tauranga man is today being praised a hero after valiantly saving the life of an elderly neighbour whose kitchen caught fire in the early hours of this morning.
Paul Davis, 35, spotted flames flickering through his neighbour's window just before 2am and grabbed his Co2 fire extinguisher from his garage before rushing next door.
Margaret Lind, 75, had put some chips in a pot on the stove to cook but fallen asleep infront of the television while waiting.
The incident happened in Brookfield's Novella Place.
Nigel Liddicoat senior station officer for Tauranga Fire Brigade, said Ms Lind had two smoke alarms in her home but neither had batteries.
Mr Davis said he tried to open Ms Lind's back door but on discovering it locked, smashed his way through the glass panel, and crawled through broken glass to find her.
He dragged Ms Lind _ who was asleep in the lounge _ outside, as well as extinguishing the fire after by using his hand held extinguisher and putting a damp cloth over the pot.
'The fire flared up about four times. I could see her sitting on the sofa,' he said.
The flames from the pot reached the ceiling and the smoke was overwhelming, he said.
When asked if he was concerned for his own safety, Mr Davis said he didn't really think of it at the time.
'I kept going downstairs for fresh air, for another mouthful,' he said.
He would do it all over again if he had too he told the Bay of Plenty Times.
Mr Davis was today praised by Ms Lind who said she considered herself 'darn lucky'.
'The good Lord was looking after me. If Paul hadn't seen it, that would have been it I would think.'
She said she had little recollection of what had happened after putting her chips on, then falling asleep.
'The next thing I remember is this guy [Paul] waking me up and getting me out of the house.'
Today she had a bit of a cough but said she was relatively unharmed.
Her task was now thinking of a way to thank Mr Davis, she said.
'It's a real wake up call.'
Mr Liddicoat from the fire service hailed Mr Davis as a hero and said he did all the right things.
'You're not always totally sure what you're going into. The house was certainly heavily smoke logged. We could well have been talking about a fatality,' he said.
By the time firefighters arrived at the scene the fire was virtually out, and thanks to Mr Davis' quick-thinking efforts, the kitchen sustained smoke damage only.
He was last night taken to Tauranga Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.