A RIVERDALE man has recounted the dramatic moments when he and a friend saved two of his neighbours from a blaze that gutted their home.
Antoin Carlisle and Terence Young saved an elderly woman in her 80s and a man in his 50s from the house fire in Riverdale Park South around 1.30am on Saturday morning. After noticing smoke billowing from the property, the brave pair sprang into action, racing towards the fire to bring the people inside to safety.
Recounting the dramatic ordeal, Antoin told us: “I couldn’t see the fire, so I thought it was the end house on my street. As soon as we got to the end of the street we could see the flames through the back windows – the whole lot was on fire.
“Nobody lives in the house next door so I kicked in that door thinking somebody had broken in and set it on fire. Then I came round and hit the other door a boot and the fire nearly blew me off my feet.
“I started smashing windows to let the smoke out. I smashed the front window and then climbed up and smashed one of the top windows and shouted at the top of my lungs, ‘Is anybody there?’
“We found out there were people at the back of the house. We couldn’t get in the front because the flames were too big, so we went to the old couple next door, got them settled, and then my mate Terence started breaking down the fence with his shovel to get into the house. He got in the back way and lifted the two people out of the house and out through the broken fence.
“The smoke was all over the place so I thought all the houses were going to go up. I went to the houses on the other side and got them up. My neighbour had one of the kids and I had to bring the other one up the street to get them away from the smoke – I was trying to keep my hand over the child’s face to stop them breathing in the smoke. The black smoke was following us the whole way up.”
Antoin added: “I think most people would have done it. I just did it because it was my own neighbours. I knew there were old people in those houses so I had to do something. When it’s your own street you can’t just walk past it. I have to thank my friend Terence too because if he wasn’t here then God knows what would have happened.”
A spokesperson for the Fire Service said: “Firefighters were called to a house fire on the ground floor of a two storey, mid-terraced property. A man in his 50s and a woman in her 80s were out of the property before the arrival of fire crews. Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus extinguished the fire.
“Both casualties were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation and shock and taken to hospital. An elderly neighbour was also treated at the scene and taken to hospital. The cause of the fire is believed to be accidental.”