A FIRST aider who plucked a man from the Bradford fire and saved his life now wants to track him down, as the 30th anniversary of the disaster approaches.

Christopher Fisher was a 25-year-old St John Ambulance volunteer on duty at Valley Parade on the day of the blaze.

He had joined the organisation "to give something back" after being treated at St Luke's Hospital, in what was the pre-cursor to the Bradford Burns Unit, for electrocution burns injuries he suffered in 1979.

Now 54, Mr Fisher told the Telegraph & Argus that he wants to find Walter, the man he pulled from the fire-hit stand.

"I was near where the fire started," said Mr Fisher. "I ran to get out of the way, but then I saw this police sergeant and he went straight in and was pulling people out. So I turned round and then I was pulling people out.

"A man I was pulling out collapsed unconscious. He was about 17."

Mr Fisher thought the boy had a spinal injury because of the way he collapsed.

"I pulled him to a certain part of the pitch and put him in the recovery position. He was unconscious for about five to ten minutes.

"Then people shouted about a fireball. We had to pull this guy back from the heat.

"People were shouting, everything was going on, there was lots of smoke.

"I thought I was going to cry. I bit my lip all the time."

He added: "It was like watching a video. I stayed there but took myself away from the situation. My training came out."

Then the man came round. Mr Fisher, who works for Bradford Royal Infirmary radio and last year became a chaplaincy visitor for Bradford NHS Hospitals Trust, said: "He said his name was Walter but to call him Tacky.

"I want to find this guy."

Mr Fisher said he got people to take their jackets off so he could use them to make a makeshift stretcher for Walter. An ambulance turned up and that was the last he saw of the man he saved.

Mr Fisher then returned to the centre of the pitch, where he comforted an elderly lady who had suffered bad burns.

In the chaos and confusion, Mr Fisher said he contemplated going back for his raincoat and apple, which he had left in the corner of the ground where he had been positioned.

"I was just shocked," said Mr Fisher. "We worked as a team. We were trained to do just first aid. We did not think we would have to do something like this.

"We gave everything to this and we suffered for so many years. I knew two people who died in the fire."

Mr Fisher's experience led him to take a form of counselling called neuro-linguistic programming, something which he says changed his life.

"It was wonderful," he said. "It has been like a rollercoaster ride for me.

"Bradford can bounce back. A lot of people are still suffering. I have beaten the demons.

"This neuro-linguistic programming is the tops as far as I'm concerned - I am more caring now."

Mr Fisher, of Idle, got a citation from the Chief Constable for saving Walter's life, and his St John Ambulance division received a High Merit award. He was a St John Ambulance volunteer between 1981 and 2002.