A RAMSBOTTOM ambulanceman who risked his life to help save a family of four from a burning house said he wouldn't hesitate to do it again if he was confronted with a similar situation.

In March, Sean Brady and his paramedic colleague Martin Collier were first to arrive at the scene of a major house fire in Rochdale and, together with a police officer, entered the flame-filled property after neighbours said a family was trapped inside.

While searching the rooms upstairs, they found two adults and two children, who were all unconscious.

Sean rescued the 36-year-old woman, Martin carried a two-year-old boy to safety and PC Mark Challender saved the boy's sister, aged three. They all returned to the house to rescue a 44-year-old man.

On Monday 6th, Sean and Martin were presented with bravery awards by the fire service for helping to rescue the family.

Sean (37), a student paramedic, said: "It was nice to receive a commendation, but I only did what anyone else would have done if they were faced with the same situation. I am a father myself and I would like to think someone would do the same for me and my family.

"I realised we were putting ourselves into a very dangerous situation, against protocol, but we just acted on instinct."

After rescuing the family, Sean had to give the three-year-old girl mouth-to-mouth resuscitation after she had stopped breathing due to smoke inhalation.

He said: "The youngster had suffered a respiratory arrest, but she started to come round as we gave her resuscitation. We took her to hospital and thankfully everyone has made a full recovery."

The Greater Manchester Ambulance crew were themselves treated at hospital for minor smoke inhalation as were a neighbour, Mr Louis Blank, and fire officer Deon Webber, who assisted in the rescue. They were also presented with the County Fire Officer's commendation at Monday's ceremony at Rochdale fire station. PC Challender will receive his award at later date.

Greater Manchester Ambulance Service chief executive Mr John Burnside said: "We would never encourage our staff to put themselves in the line of danger. But their bravery saved lives. Their reward is richly deserved and a credit to all the emergency services who worked so hard on that day."

County fire officer Barry Dixon said: "These awards recognise the brave and selfless actions of all the emergency service personnel who attended this incident, which averted a possible tragedy."