Teenagers praised for fire rescue

Ben Jarrom also rescued the couple's dog

A group of teenage boys have been praised for helping to wake a sleeping Leicestershire couple who had left a chip pan on the hob.

Ben Jarrom and his friends were passing Christine Gurney's home in Countesthorpe when they heard a smoke alarm and smelled something strange.

They knocked on the door and when no-one came, they knocked louder and threw stones at windows to wake the Gurneys.

Mrs Gurney said the boys had saved her life and that of her husband.

Dog rescue

"My husband and I went to bed when we were woken at about 2 o' clock in the morning by these boys," said Mrs Gurney.

"The chip pan was on fire, so my husband put it out with an extinguisher we've had for about 30 years.

"The fire brigade arrived and it was total panic.

"I can't admire them enough, I think they're heroes and if it wasn't for them, I don't think my husband and I would have survived."

Ben Jarrom said he and two friends also had to rescue the family dog, who had been left upstairs in a bedroom, during the blaze in July.

"When we got to the house, we thought we'd better knock to see if anything was happening, but we couldn't get a response so started throwing stones at windows and banging on the door."

Watch manager at Wigston Fire and Rescue station, Martin Bee, added: "Sometimes people's perception of a group of lads... is that they're up to no good, but they responded to the smoke alarm going off, called the fire brigade and woke the couple up."

Leicestershire Fire and Rescue has given the couple a thermostatically-controlled deep fat fryer.

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The youths saw smoke billowing out of a house