Teenagers who helped rescue man from burning house in Shirebrook to be honoured for bravery

Shirebrook Academy Year 11 students Farren Walters, Archie Ashton, Josua Jope, Liam Gladwin and Brandon Butler will all be given official commendations by Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service on Friday for displaying heroism in the incident last month.

The students’ selfless actions saw them help two off-duty police officers lift a bedridden pensioner to safety after he became trapped in his home when fire broke out.

The boys had been walking to the train station when they spotted smoke billowing from the roof of a bungalow on Rockley Way. While they were standing outside the front door, they heard cries for help coming from the garden and they jumped over the fence.

There they found a couple struggling to wheel the man, who was confined to his bed, out of the back door and so they helped to lift him out of the building and to safety.

Firefighters arrived to extinguish the blaze, which had started in a tumble dryer and spread to the roof space of the building, and will now attend the school, on Common Lane, alongside representatives from Derbyshire Constabulary to give the teenagers their commendations.

Mark Cottingham, principal of Shirebrook Academy, said: “We will be very proud to welcome representatives from Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Derbyshire Constabulary to our school this Friday.

“Farren, Archie, Josua, Liam and Brandon showed that they were not the type of people who stand back in someone else’s hour of need and they all thoroughly deserve to be recognised for their bravery and compassion.”