Blazing save

By Nicole Williams
FLAMES, smoke and cinders couldn’t keep a Noble Park man from running into a burning house last week to save an elderly woman.
But Douglas Berry insists the risks didn’t enter his mind as he broke down the back gate to make his rescue.
“I guess it was just instinct and I sussed the situation really quickly,” he said.
“I didn’t see much risk but I wasn’t thinking too much at the time.”
The 27-year-old hadn’t planned on driving down Green Street in Noble Park but a wrong turn put him in the right place at the right time.
He stopped his car in the middle of the road when he saw smoke coming from a house.
“I saw smoke coming out of house and when I pulled up there were flames coming out the window but there was no-one in street,” he said.
Mr Berry went up to the house, yelling for anyone inside – and got a response from the 85-year-old woman.
“I went to back gate and I could hear the elderly lady and I could see her standing inside the house so I forced down the gate,” he recalls.
“She kept saying she wanted to go back in and get the bird so I just picked her up and ran out.”
Mr Berry said he started coughing immediately from the smoke and cinders.
With singed hair and smoke inhalation, the woman would not have survived if not for Mr Berry’s quick thinking.
“Because the house was filled with smoke, it only would have been a matter of time before the lady would have passed out,” CFA’s Senior Station Officer at Springvale, Bernie Frawley said.
“The outcome could have been very different if Douglas wasn’t there to pull her out. He should be very proud of his actions.”
Mr Berry was more modest and said it was just a lucky situation.
“I’m just glad she is ok,” he said. “Family and friends have been congratulating me and I guess it was a good deed.”
Two CFA trucks and around 15 firefighters from Springvale and Dandenong fought the fire, which is believed to have sparked from a cigarette in the master bedroom.
The house has a substantial amount of damage and is now unliveable.