AN EXPLOSION was heard before a pensioner was carried out through the window of his burning flat unconscious and blackened by smoke.
Neighbours heard a bang and saw smoke seeping through gaps around closed windows and pouring out above the door before he was saved by firefighters and treated by paramedics outside his Weymouth home before being taken to hospital.
“It was awful,” said next door neighbour Honor Preece in Holland Road, Westham.
She dialled 999 when she heard the bang and saw the smoke and said her neighbour – aged about 70 – had his face and his usually white hair blackened by the fire as he was carried out.
Mrs Preece, 41, who owns the Preecelands Bed and Breakfast, said: “There was an explosion and there was smoke coming through the window.
“It had to be bad because the windows were shut but it was seeping through the seals.
“I thought ‘oh my God’ and phoned the fire brigade.”
Mrs Preece praised the firefighters for their arrival time and for saving her neighbour, who she described as ‘a really nice man’.
She said: “They couldn’t get through the door at first so they smashed all the windows and pulled him out.
“He was unconscious and he’s got white hair and that was totally black. It was really bad.
“The smoke was still coming out as they pulled him out.”
A total of two crews from Weymouth and one from Portland were called and used breathing equipment and two hose reel jets to tackle the blaze.
The fire service is investigating the cause of the fire.
Arn Fitzgerald was at the flats visiting his friend Matthew Savage and was walking down the stairs to go to the shop as the fire started.
He said: “I saw the smoke.
“I started banging on the door because there was smoke pouring out of the top of it.”
Mr Fitzgerald believes it may have been a microwave exploding.
He said when he tried to open the door it was locked from the inside.
He said: “The next thing there was a big bang as it exploded in there. Then the fire brigade arrived and got him out but he was covered in black.
“But there was no way they could open that door as you can’t kick them through.”
“He could easily have died. And the smoke was unreal. It was really foul.”
Residents said they waited outside after the fire at 5.15pm on Friday.
Fire investigation officer Alun Morgan, said the first crews from Weymouth arrived within four minutes He said: “I have started an investigation into the cause of this fire although we do not believe it to be suspicious.
“Unfortunately the room where the fire started suffered severe fire damage and the rest of the flat was badly smoke-logged.”
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