The heroic brothers who rushed to save sleeping residents from a top floor in a Dundee tenement spoke about the rescue when they returned to the scene.
The blaze broke out in the top floor of 49 Ann Street, just off Hilltown, in the early hours of Sunday, but thanks to brave brothers Barry Lamont, 21, and Andrew Steven, 17, no one was seriously injured.
The brothers called firefighters at 1.26am and by the time they arrived all seven residents had been safely evacuated to the street.
The stairwell still smells strongly and the walls are streaked with soot from the blaze but Barry said it could have been a lot worse when they spoke to The Courier after an appeal by the paper for them to come forward.
He said the pair were taking a shortcut after walking Andrew’s father home from a family meal when they were alerted to the blaze by flat owner John Garland, who was out in the street looking for help.
Barry said they acted instinctively and kicked open the entry door and ran up to the top floor to see if anyone needed help.
He said: “The old man was distressed and we didn’t know if there was anyone else in his flat. I didn’t think it was as bad as it was because I didn’t see any flames but as soon as I burst the flat door open the smoke just came pouring out.
“When that happened we just started chapping on doors trying to get people up and out. We didn’t really think about the danger we were putting ourselves in.
We just thought about all the people who were probably in their beds.”
Patricia Wieczorek, 29, who occupies the flat directly opposite Mr Garland’s, did not answer at first and the brothers initially thought there was no one at home.
After all the other residents were out, one of them said there was a woman in the top flat with a little boy, so the pair rushed back into the smoke-filled building.
Although they opened the windows as they went, the smoke was still so thick they struggled to see anything as they reached the top floor.
Barry said: “I heard Patricia screaming but I couldn’t really see her for the smoke.
“She didn’t know where she was so I just grabbed her hand through the smoke.”
They managed to help Patricia down the stairs and thankfully her young son was not in the flat with her at the time.
Andrew said: “When we got her out she was black with soot and in shock so I just gave her a hug. It felt like ages but in fact it was probably over in five minutes. We were just glad the kid wasn’t in the flat. Everyone was out by the time the fire brigade got there. We didn’t see any flames but the firefighters told us the sitting room was on fire and it could have been a lot more serious.”
It was only when they got home and started coughing up black soot and blood they called an ambulance to get themselves checked out and were given some oxygen.
A resident who was woken in the blaze thanked the brothers when they returned to the flats.