GRAHAM Gilsenan was in bed as the fire broke out in Tremellen Street, Accrington, at 12.45am on November 1.

The retained fire-fighter was awoken at his home in Princess Street, Church, by his emergency pager and reached the fire station on Hyndburn Road within three minutes.

In less than six minutes from their original call, his crew were at the scene of the fire, joining two full-time crews that had already arrived.

Mr Gilsenan, who works during the day as a driver for JAS Timber, in Walpole Street, Blackburn, was one of the first firefighters to enter the house.

The front door of the property was broken down and a ventilation unit was used to blow as much smoke out of the house as possible.

Mr Gilsenan was one of six firefighters sent into the property on a mission to search for and rescue the family.

Much of the fire was confined to the first floor and the temperature was so high that plaster around the stairs had melted into the staircase.

Mr Gilsenan said this created a smooth incline that was almost im-passable. He said: "The adrenalin was really pumping.

"I didn't even see the flames, I just had tunnel vision and wanted to get the family out of there.

"Everything happened so quickly. As soon as we arrived on the first floor we went into a bedroom and instantly found one of the young girls.

"It was obvious that she was dead.

"I carried her downstairs and out onto the street, where I passed her over to paramedics.

"There was a crowd of people wailing and screaming outside and a large number of emer-gency service personnel.

"The eldest daughter (Sayrah) had already been brought out. I rushed straight back into the house and went with a colleague into the bathroom."

There he said they found Mohammed who was slumped on the floor.

Both firefighters thought he was dead but as they attempted to move him he made a noise, Mr Gilsenan said.

He said: "I suddenly screamed to let everyone know that he was alive and we started to carry him out to the street.

"It was chaos. I was carrying the father with a colleague while walking backwards down the stairs.

"I needed help from another firefighter just to make it down the steps safely.

"As we were going we could hear shouts that the youngest girl had been found.

"As soon as we got outside we took him to an ambulance and went straight back inside."

During his last foray into the house he found mum Caneze and carried her from the house.

Once the search was completed in the end-terrace, the rescue effort ceased and the main focus became firefighting.

Mr Gilsenan was able to return home at around 6.15am but he had no time to rest as an hour later he left for his day job. After one day he told bosses that he couldn't cope.

He went to the doctor and was signed off work for three weeks.

Five weeks later he has still not gone back but he is now back on call as a firefighter.

To help come to terms with what happened, he has had counselling set up by fire service bosses.

He has even taken time out to visit the graves of the Riaz family in Accrington Cemetery.

Mr Gilsenan said he often speaks to the graves and has apologised for what he sees as not being able to do more to save them.

He believes because his own son, Addison, three, is the same age as the youngest victim of the fire, Hannah, and he has nieces and nephews that are the same age as the other sisters, things have affected him even more.

At the family's funeral he placed flowers on the grave with a note that read: "Sorry. I wish I could have done more".

He said: "At our critical debrief a week later the station manager Mark Alderson spoke to all of us that had been involved in the incident.

"He told us how even the most experienced firefighters were badly affected by what had happened and we had all done an excellent job."

Mr Gilsenan, a former soldier who has been a retained firefighter for two years, said: "I didn't know the family in life but I feel that I have lost something.

"I think the whole of Accrington feels the same way. This fire has taken something very important from the town.

"The fact the fire was not an accident makes it even harder to take."

Lancashire chief fire officer Peter Holland, said: "Even with the best training, when you are faced with a house where five people have died and a sixth is critically injured it's bound to have an effect.

"It was the most appalling tragedy."