7:00am Tuesday 9th February 2010
By Peter Magill
A MODEST hero who plucked an 82-year-old man from his burning home has been praised by firefighters.
Former car dealer Henry ‘Nobby’ Clarke was trapped in his bathroom after staggering upstairs as a blaze raged in his lounge.
Fire chiefs say the pensioner banged on his window as flames and smoke gripped his end-terrace home in Railway Street, Stacksteads, on Sunday night.
Martin Bailey, of nearby Mark Street, dashed to the scene with a ladder and reached the bathroom.
He managed to drag Mr Clarke to safety, just minutes before fire crews from Bacup and Rawtenstall arrived the scene. Mr Clarke's pet dog died in the fire.
Fire service investigators believe that, without Mr Bailey’s swift intervention, Mr Clarke would not have survived.
Watch manager Tony Ashworth said: “The man had been downstairs and woke up to find smoke all around him.
“He was probably disorientated and went upstairs to the bathroom, where we think he was banging on the window.
“The neighbour put a ladder up to the bathroom and managed to rescue him.
“If it had not been for the neighbour’s actions, the man may not have survived.
“The householder did not have a smoke alarm and would have been rescued a lot quicker if he had.”
Mr Ashworth said that the area, behind Newchurch Road, had been previously targeted by the community fire safety department.
Extra work would take place to revisit homes on the estate.
One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said that Mr Clarke had lived on his own for some time and used to sell cars locally.
“The smoke was so bad that I thought the mist had descended early.
"You could not move for fire engines,” he added.
The fire gutted Mr Clarke’s lounge and caused severe heat and smoke damage to a sitting room and kitchen.
Mr Clarke was taken to the Royal Blackburn Hospital, suffering from smoke inhalation, and he was still being treated there last night.
His condition is not thought to be life-threatening.
Investigations are now underway to discover the cause of the blaze but it is not being treated as suspicious.
Mr Bailey was unavailable for comment last night.
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