A heroic group of neighbors risked their lives by entering the burning remains of a house destroyed by a gas explosion to save a man.
The residents climbed over flaming debris, through dust and debris to pull the man alive from the property.
He was rushed to hospital and is in a life-threatening condition following the explosion in Kingstanding north of Birmingham.
One man, who refused to give his name, described how a group of about 12 saw a road to the burning building and seized their moment.
“Everyone was watching, the house was on fire, no one was entering, so we could see an entrance – so we entered the house, me and about a dozen others,” he told PA News Agency.
There was a guy in the back (in the house), we could hear the guy screaming, but he was trapped against the fridge in the kitchen.
‘The dust from the attic insulation burned around us.
“We managed to get to him and pull him out – I still have his blood on my jeans.
‘We took him out, he finally came out on a mattress. But he said there was a woman in the house. ‘
The rescuer said the man’s clothes were ‘blown off’ and he was ‘full of blood’ to such an extent ‘you could not even see him’.
“We just went straight through the (front) door, and I thought I was going through the house’s door – but it was actually the house next door, because the house door was destroyed,” he added.
‘We came out from behind, and then we could hear the man screaming, and we dug him out.
‘He was in the kitchen, flat on the floor, with his back to a fridge or washing machine.
He went “do not pull me – my legs” and I said “mate, we’ll have to take you out now”.
The group of rescuers broke damaged water pipes between the rubble to try to put out their own clothes to protect them from the flames.
While standing by the police cordon, watching the emergency services operating under powerful spotlights amid the devastation, the man added: ‘There is nothing left of that house at all.
“We went through the house – and that house is gone.”
West Midlands police said officers were called just after 8.30pm on Sunday after the incident on Dulwich Road in Kingstanding.
One house was destroyed and several others were significantly damaged, as well as nearby cars, the force said.
West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) said people at the scene rescued a man from the wrecked house, but he had ‘very serious injuries’ and was taken to hospital.
Four other men sustained minor injuries and were examined by ambulance crews at the scene, WMAS added.
A spokesman said: “A man was assisted by people at the scene from the property but sustained very serious injuries.
‘After assessment and treatment at the scene, he was taken at blue lights to the large trauma center at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham with the MERIT team traveling with the ambulance.
“His condition upon his arrival at the hospital was described as life-threatening.”
Four other men were examined by ambulance crews for minor conditions at the scene and were later discharged.
Birmingham police tweeted that the West Midlands Fire Service believed it was a gas explosion and took command of the incident.
A spokesman for Cadent Gas said his staff were at the site but it was “too early to speculate on the cause” of the blast.
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