18-year-old is fire hero as five children rescued

A teenager and his family were praised for their heroic actions yesterday after rescuing five children from a burning home.

Matthew Robinson, 18, braved fierce heat and thick smoke to climb into a first floor bedroom after earlier being beaten back by flames when he tried to go in through the front of the terraced house. He could only locate the children in the choking darkness by getting them to call out though one was unconscious when rescued.

The family were alerted to the blaze around 9.30pm on Sunday when Matthew heard the children’s mother Tracee Barlow screaming. She had suffered a fractured pelvis after leaping from the first floor window to escape. The rest of the family were treated in hospital for smoke inhalation though their injuries were not serious.

Matthew’s mother Jackie Robinson found a ladder and helped three of the children, including a 16-month-old boy, to safety before her son went back into the flaming building in Abbotsbury, Dorset to find the other two. The teenager, who only turned 18 on New Year’s Day suffered singed eye lashes and hair and was left with a cough but denied he had been a hero.

"I would have thought anyone would do that to try and save some children,” he said. “Being in the room with all that smoke trying to find them, I started to panic, wondering whether I would be able to find them or not. It was just impossible to see anything so I was thinking what if I was too late and what would happen if I couldn't find them?," added the trainee mechanic.

His mother said the time he spent inside the building had been agonising for the rest of the family including her husband and daughter who were helping the children outside. "He was probably only in there for five or six minutes but it felt like half an hour to me," said Mrs Robinson, 40, who works at a local hotel. "Matt was very calm, I am very proud of him. He has more guts than I have got considering he is only 18. He went straight in. He didn't think," she said.

"I don't think it was heroic," she added. "We just did what was necessary. I don't think there was any logic in it at all. It was all over so fast. I don't think we were thinking of the danger or anything like that. We just knew we had to get them out. "It could have been a completely different story if Matt hadn't heard them yelling outside. It could have been another 10 minutes before we got there."

She also paid tribute to Mrs Barlow’s eldest daughter Charlotte, 16, who mustered her brothers and sisters into the back room away from the flames and helped pass two of the youngsters down the ladder. The family later thanked their rescuers.

Inspector Andy Crook, of Dorset Police, praised the Robinsons. "The actions of the Robinson family can only be described as heroic and without the quick thinking and positive action performed by Matt, Jackie and Roy there would have almost certainly been more serious if not fatal consequences," he said. Firefighters said a smoke alarm inside the house had almost certainly saved the lives of the family.