A teenage boy has been hailed after risking his life to rescue a woman from a fire in her house in Dundee.
Kieran Walker (16) noticed a shed next to the pensioner’s house in Armour Place, Linlathen, ablaze and knocked on the door to alert her.
When the outbreak spread to the house, he returned to pull her out.
Kieran, a fourth-year pupil at St Paul’s Academy, said: ”I was walking home after football at Powrie Park when three kids ran past shouting. I noticed the shed on fire and saw it was getting bigger and bigger but nobody seemed to realise.
”I knew the woman inside was quite old so I ran to the door and knocked loudly. She answered and said she would phone the fire brigade.”
Kieran, of Mid Craigie, was shocked when Angela Sinclair (76) stepped back inside and when the fire spread to her house he feared for her life.
As the heat of the blaze blew out a window, he banged on the door to force her to leave.
He continued: ”I was so worried for the lady and knocked for ages. When she came to the door, I shouted at her to leave, as flames were shooting up the walls.
”She said she didn’t want to leave. I stood at the door, screaming at her to hurry up until she eventually came.”
Kieran’s mum Kerry Duffy (35), who works at the under-12s project in Mauchline Place East, said her son is a ”real hero” for his actions during last Thursday’s blaze.
”If it hadn’t been for Kieran’s actions, the fire could have been a lot worse, and the woman could have died,” she said.
The blaze broke out after children smoking outside the house set fire to an abandoned mattress propped against a shed. They admitted to police that discarded cigarettes caused the blaze, which spread to Ms Sinclair’s home, as well as a neighbouring house.
The outbreak in the two properties was tackled by fire crews from Kingsway East and Macalpine Road.
Tayside Fire and Rescue Service station manager Fraser Scott said the children, believed to be aged 13, went forward to police.
He added: ”The elderly resident was escorted from the premises but didn’t need treatment.”