Two people who risked their lives to rescue a passenger trapped in a car on Christmas Eve were given commendations for their bravery by West Yorkshire Fire Service.

Paul Shepherd, 34, and Alison Booth, 34, were both driving along the Addingham bypass on Christmas Eve last year and both stopped to save the life of a passenger who had become trapped in a car after it had crashed and ended up on its side.

Paul, a cooker assembler, was driving home with his partner after visiting his brother in Leeds to collect Christmas presents when he noticed the traffic had started to slow down.

And Alison, 34, was driving home to her parents, when she spotted the car and pulled over.

Paul said: "I realised that there was someone still in the vehicle and it was smoking. It was getting blacker and blacker."

Alison said: "I just saw this car on its side upside down and a young boy running down the road. I just stopped to see if there was anyone in the car.

"The passenger said that he couldn't get out and he had hurt his leg. I could see that the car was smoking so we just tried to get him out as soon as we could."

The modest pair told the Telegraph & Argus that they did not think they had done anything special but Craig McIntosh, assistant chief fire officer for West Yorkshire, said that without their assistance the passenger, Mr Falshaw, would have died.

"Without the actions of these two people Mr Falshaw would have died in a particularly horrific manner. They put themselves at considerable risk to save someone else," he said. Ilkley fire station watch manager Alex Watson said: "We were the first crew to arrive at the scene and by that stage the car was engulfed in flames, so it wasn't quite obvious at the beginning that the passenger had got out."

Alison, who is a nurse in London, said: "I've stopped at accidents before but never anything this serious - I didn't do anything special."

Paul, who lives in Earby in Lancashire, said he did not have time to think about the danger he was putting himself in.

"The job had to be done and we were there at the time," he said. "I didn't think about it I just got on with it. It all happened so fast that by the time we were away from the car it had gone up in flames."

e-mail: sunita.bhatti@bradford.newsquest.co.uk