A MAN has saved his next door neighbour’s life by breaking into her burning home in Hereford and pulling her to safety.

This lunchtime Phil Fussell had returned to his home in Turnberry Drive in Holmer when he heard screaming, a smoke alarm and muffled explosions coming from next door.

He ran to the front of the house and saw Susan Kitson, who suffers from MS and is unable to walk, in her front room surrounded by flames and smoke.

Mr Fussell shoulder-barged the door and battled through the smoke to pick up Ms Kitson and drag her to safety.

Both were checked over by paramedics and were discharged at the scene.

Station commander Phil Major said: “She wouldn’t have got out without him. It is as simple as that. He saved her life.”

Ms Kitson said she believes Mr Fussell should receive an award for bravery.

Mr Fussell said: “I looked through the window and she was screaming and waving her arms. Flames were licking at the window.

“The flames were around her. The room was full of smoke. I knew she had MS and couldn’t walk.

“I shoulder barged the door and it flew open. I had my arms around her. I dragged her to the door.”

Another neighbour came to help when he got to the front door. 

Four fire engines were called at 12pm to the fully developed fire in the four-bedroom detached house.

Ms Kitson said she had lit a candle in the windowsill as she was waiting for a friend to come for lunch and as the windows were open a breeze flicked the curtain into the candle’s flame.

She said: “And then the smoke alarm went off and I screamed because it happened so quickly.

“My neighbour next door heard it and rushed in and picked me up. I could have died.

“There were massive flames.”

Ms Kitson, who used to run a drama school called Curtain Call in Hereford, said all of her antiques had been ruined.

Mr Fussell said: “It was all over in minutes. I have never seen a proper house fire before and I was amazed at the speed it spread.”

He added: “It is the sheer heat and the smoke. You couldn’t breathe- it was like being underwater and you are drowning.”

Mr Major said it was a very well developed fire when they arrived which had spread very quickly.

He added: “The warm weather might have helped that with the slight breeze.

"When the first fire engine got here flames were coming out of the top floor and the whole property had been consumed by fire.

“Four firefighters went into the building wearing breathing apparatus to fight the fire internally. They extinguished the fire very quickly.”

The temperature was over 100 degrees on the upper floor alone.

Ms Kitson is going to move into her dad’s property in Hereford for the time being.