A proud father this week praised his eight-year-old son who raised the alarm when he heard a smoke alarm sounding in a neighbour’s Telford flat.
Lewis McGuire warned other neighbours about the incident in Park Street, Madeley, and stood in the street to direct firefighters when they arrived.
Firefighters had to smash their way into the smoke-filled flat to rescue a woman in her 40s, who could not be roused.
She was taken to the Princess Royal Hospital for treatment after Monday night’s incident, believed to have been caused by food left unattended on a cooker. She was later released.
Lewis’ father, Frank Doyle, of Mayfield, said the John Randall Primary School pupil, of Summerhill, Sutton Hill, had put to good use information he had been given at his previous school, the Sir Alexander Flemming in Sutton Hill.
“Lewis was in front of me on the way to the flat. He started shouting about a fire alarm going off. As I got closer I heard it. Lewis went to the flat upstairs and told the lady to warn her and she had never heard the alarm.”
He said “He was very calm. He was very good.”
Mr Doyle said all the neighbours had been tapping him on the head and saying how well he had done, adding: “I am very proud of him. He has done a brilliant job.”
The 40-year-old said he had warned Lewis, who was one of the first babies born in the Millennium, they might have to smashed their way into the flat themselves if the firefighters had not arrived when they did.
Mr Doyle, said: “He told the firefighters where it was. He said he could look through the window and see the woman asleep. He was just brilliant for an eight-year-old boy.”
He said the youngster was excited after the drama and had even got a sit in a police car and fire appliance.
“The firemen came to school to thank him for being so brave.”