Hero Bradford dad saves street from gas explosion and fire risk

Sleeping residents on Rathmell Street in the Bankfoot area were woken up by neighbour Karl Smith just after 6am on Tuesday.

He was sat in his living room when a “tremendous bang” echoed across the street and startled his family dog.

Karl told the Telegraph & Argus: “I was just in my living room after six o clock in the morning. I just heard this tremendous bang. It literally rattled the living room.

“I’d gone outside and just seen this big black plume of smoke. I panicked, grabbed my phone, dialled 999 straight onto the firefighters.”

He added: “Looking back on it, it was scary but with the adrenaline and my heart pumping and jumping into action, I don’t think I had time to think about how it felt. It was definitely scary.”

After calling 999, Karl took his wife, little boy and 10-month-old daughter to safety.

He then knocked down the door of one of the most at risk families, who were sleeping and oblivious to the danger they were in.

Living in a close-knit community had its perks as he collected a key from another neighbour’s house to bring a severely ill resident to safety.

Karl said: “I don’t mind helping people especially at their time in need. If anything were to happen I couldn’t live with myself.

“I evacuated everyone to a safe place.

“It was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

Karl’s five year old son, Jaden, keeps calling his dad a hero. Picture: Newsquest, Mike Simmonds (Image: Newsquest, Mike Simmonds)

“With the fire going straight from the roof, where the insulation is, when that goes up in smoke the fire will spread in minutes. It spread to next door. If I didn’t call them when I did within 30 minutes the row of houses where I live would have been up in smoke.

“I had people coming up to me all day. I’m usually a confident person, I’m a bit shy about this. To me I’d have done it for anybody. I’d risk my life.

“It does make me feel nice. That could have been somebody’s grandma or sister or brother. The young kids, two were in bed and they’ve not got smoke alarms in the house. They said the way I acted, it’s like you’re my family. It does make me feel nice.”

Minutes later, firefighters arrived at the scene and tackled the incident.

Karl’s five year old son, Jaden, keeps calling his dad a hero while locals in the area said he deserved recognition for his efforts.

Initial enquiries at the scene pointed to an old meter in the unoccupied house unexpectedly catching fire, which likely spread flames to the boiler.

It created an explosion which blew out all the windows in the house as well as another neighbour’s windows, Karl was told.

Northern Gas Networks had to be called out to close the gas off and reconnect the neighbours’ houses.

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