A TAVISTOCK pair who rescued a man from his burning flat on Christmas Day have questioned why there was no warden on site at the sheltered accommodation complex at the time.

Mechanic James Read and carer Gareth Rowe spotted smoke pouring from a flat on King Street as they made their way home from the pub in the early hours of Christmas Day morning.

They went up the stairs to the second floor flat in Pinder Court and got the occupant, an elderly man, out.

They also rescued one of his neighbours and established that no one else was in a third, also on the second floor.

They then waited until the firefighters arrived, with crews from Tavistock and Yelverton joined by two from Plymouth.

Gareth said: 'There was no one here to help anyone else. There were no care workers, nothing. There is meant to be 24-hour care here and there are no carers. There is meant to be a be a warden, and there is no warden, so we just thought we would do it ourselves.'

The man, a pensioner, has been temporarily rehoused at a bunkhouse in the same street.

Gareth, who is a carer for his mum, has known the man for seven years and says he has no family.

He said: 'He has lost his life now, he really has.'

Crews from Tavistock Fire Station attended the callout, with an alarm within the flat automatically alerting the fire brigade, along with crews from Yelverton and Crownhill and Greenbank in Plymouth.

Glenn Arundel, station commander of Tavistock Fire Station, said the two rescuers had saved the man’s life. ‘Within eight minutes it was a fully developed fire so he did well do get out. It was a very serious fire, if they hadn’t got him out then he wouldn’t have survived, I think they did a first class job.’

He added that it ‘could have been a lot worse’ as there were two gas canisters inside the flat, one of which was leaking.

He said the cause of the flat was accidental and reiterated the advice to always have a working smoke alarm.

Pinder Court is a complex of sheltered accommodation flats which are run by LiveWest housing association.

James Reseigh, LiveWest director of neighbourhoods, said: ‘We were very sorry to hear that a fire had taken place at one of our flats at Pinder Court on Christmas Day. Thankfully no one was hurt, and our immediate focus was to provide urgent support for our customer which included finding suitable temporary accommodation.

‘Pinder Court is designed for residents who want to live independently in a home that is easier to manage. We regularly visit residents at the scheme to ensure customers can get the care they need from external agencies and any help we can provide to enable everyone to live independently. We also operate an out of hours service for all customers at the scheme. We carry out an annual fire assessment at the scheme which focuses on customer safety in relation to fire and provide domestic smoke alarms in all homes.

‘On Christmas Day, the domestic smoke alarm in the customer’s home alerted the fire service through the telecare service connected to the alarms and they attended and extinguished the fire. We will continue to support the customer in the coming weeks, ensuring all of their needs are met.’