Oriel champion rower pulls man from blazing building
Champion British rower Peter Reed has been hailed as a hero after he pulled a pensioner from a house fire earlier this week. The 24 year-old Oriel MSc student was driving home from Henley on Monday afternoon when he noticed smoke coming out of the upstairs window of 129 Iffley Road, a house converted into five flats.
Realising the thick smoke was evidence of more than a simple kitchen fire, he raised the alarm and then entered the house, which some of the residents were already in the process of evacuating. Reed was informed that there were elderly residents living in the first floor flats, and took the decision to go upstairs and search for them. He found the landing area outside flat two engulfed in thick black smoke.
“The smoke was almost like liquid; it was condensing and running down the walls,” he said. “There was an old man standing there, in his late 70s, who was obviously struggling badly and was having difficulties breathing.” The engineering science student picked up the pensioner and carried him to safety into the street, where he left him in the care of the other residents.
He then returned to the house for a second time to find a middle-aged woman, later identified as 50 year-old resident Patricia Swift, sitting on the stairs in great distress, and the stairwell rapidly filling up with smoke. Reed said: “By that stage there was another bystander who had come to help; when she realised there was a woman who was in trouble she came in and talked to her, and managed to persuade her to leave.
After calling up to the top floor flats to check there was nobody else in the building, Reed joined the residents in the street to await the emergency services. Oriel College Dean James Methven described Reed’s actions as ‘heroic’.
“Peter is a sterling part of the community in college, and a brilliant rower, but that’s all irrelevant compared to saving lives,” Mr Methven said.
“He obviously has the physique to go in and get people out, but you also need the inclination too to get in there and do that, and it’s fantastic that he was able to help.” However Reed, who was a member of the victorious Isis crew in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race earlier this year, is modest about his actions. “It wasn’t heroic, anybody would have done it. It’s very humbling that people think that.
I’m a member of the armed services, so I’ve done a firefighting course before as part of my Royal Navy training; it wasn’t the first time I’d been in a fire environment,” he said. “I didn’t really do much, I just made sure there was no-one left in the building. I wasn’t worried for my own safety, and I tried to stay as calm as possible.” The fire service arrived on the scene quickly and the blaze was subsequently extinguished.
Doug Minter, a Station Officer of the Oxford Fire & Rescue Service, said he was very grateful for Reed’s actions. “We obviously don’t encourage people to go into this sort of situation because the toxic products in smoke can be very dangerous and can overwhelm people in a matter of minutes, but if they understand the risks then they can make a reasoned assessment.
Mr Minter continued: “We applaud the actions of this student - it meant there were fewer people for the fire service to have to save.” The fire was found to have started in the living room of flat three, which is now uninhabitable, though other flats suffered only minor smoke damage. The cause of the incident is as yet unclear, but Patricia Swift was arrested at the scene and has been charged with arson with intent to endanger life.
She was tabled to appear in Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday. Three people were taken to the JR2 Hospital with smoke inhalation but no life-threatening injuries were reported. The identity of the man Reed saved remains an enigma, since although he claimed to live in flat two, other residents have informed The Oxford Student the elderly resident of this flat in fact moved out around three months ago.
David Tanner, Performance Director for the GB World Championship rowing team with whom Reed won a gold medal in the coxless four earlier this year, said: “When I heard of Peter’s actions I was not at all surprised. Peter is a great guy; confident and outgoing, and clearly very public spirited.”
Reed remains philosophical about his experience. “I’m pleased the emergency services came so quickly. I’ve never had to call 999 before, and it’s not very nice to be involved in something like this, but I’m just glad there was somebody there to help.”
24th Nov 2005