A dad-of-two told how he became a fire hero – on his 42nd birthday.
Tom Thomson, of Lower Cumberworth, was on his way home from a birthday lunch with his daughter when he saw smoke rising from behind a bungalow.
Tom, a shift supervisor at an incineration plant, feared the smoke was more than a garden bonfire.
He ushered 18-year-old daughter Helena to pull over and the duo ended up tackling the flames with a hosepipe.
Tom alerted neighbours who dialled 999 and firefighters later rescued a man who had fallen asleep on the sofa.
Tom brushed off his heroics and said: “I only did what anyone else would have done. If we hadn’t been passing at that time the outcome would have been very different. It was lucky we were there.”
Tom and Helena had been to Barnsley for an early lunch and were heading home through Denby Dale at noon last Wednesday when they saw smoke from the Revel Garth cul-de-sac.
“I knew something wasn’t right and we pulled over to take a look. We could see the smoke and I attracted the attention of some neighbours,” he said.
“We went round the back of the bungalow and the wheeled bin was on fire and flames were lapping around the window and there was smoke in the eaves.
“We found a hosepipe but the pressure was pretty low. Then in the middle of it all I saw a gas bottle.
“I doused the flames near the gas bottle and it just whooshed. That’s when I thought we were in trouble.”
Tom spent 10 minutes putting out the flames by which time fire crews from Skelmanthorpe and Huddersfield had arrived.
Firefighters went inside and found a man asleep on the sofa. He had apparently put hot material from a log burning stove in his bin and fallen asleep inside.
He was treated by paramedics for the effects of smoke but did not need hospital treatment.
Tom, who is married to Sheryl, 40, and has another daughter Hannah, 23, checked everything was okay with the emergency services before going on his way.
“It was certainly a birthday to remember,” he said.
