By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
A NOBLE Park man who saved an elderly neighbour from a house fire last Thursday had to persuade her to leave behind her pet bird.
Douglas Berry ran to the back of the Green Street property after seeing flames and smoke billowing from the front windows, about 9.15am.
At the back door was an 85-year-old woman, who appeared dazed, standing amid thick smoke.
“She didn’t know what was happening. She wanted to go back into the house to save her bird,” the good Samaritan said. “I said, ‘You’ll have to leave your bird. Your house is on fire’.”
He carried the woman over his shoulder to safety. She suffered burns to her hair and smoke inhalation and was taken to Dandenong Hospital in a stable condition.
Mr Berry said he noticed the fire as he was driving home from a medical appointment at Dandenong Hospital. “When I pulled over, the street was just quiet. I thought to myself, does no one else realise a house is burning in this street? There was no one else around.”
The woman’s distraught family later arrived, thanking Mr Berry for saving the 85-year-old’s life. “I do feel proud about it to see how happy they all were. To see all the relatives, the friends and neighbours makes you feel good about it.”
Springvale CFA senior station officer Bernie Frawley said that if not for the young man’s actions, the woman could have died. “Because the house was filled with smoke, it only would have been a matter of time before the lady would have passed out,” he said.
It took 15 firefighters about an hour to extinguish the blaze, believed to have been sparked by a cigarette in the main bedroom. The house was destroyed.
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