HEROES who rescued an 80-year-old pensioner from her blazing home in Gisburn have been praised by a coroner.

Stuart Redman, owner of the Ribblesdale Arms Hotel, crawled underneath the thick smoke with a shirt over his head while fellow rescuers Isaac Lancaster and Keith Bradley held his legs and Tommy Honeyman, landlord of the White Bull, fought the fire.

Mr Redman, of Howgill Farm, Rimington, felt Mrs Annie Jackson's foot and pulled her out of the house on Main Street.

Although she was conscious after the fire on January 19, Mrs Jackson, died on February 20 in the intensive care unit of Burnley General Hospital.

East Lancashire coroner David Smith said: "I would like to commend you for your bravery.

"You did a tremendous job.

"You managed to get to Mrs Jackson without proper fire equipment and I thought it was quite ingenious the way you decided to crawl in holding on to each other for safety. "Mr Redman and his friends deserve our congratulations on being so public spirited to do this without thinking about their own safety."

Miss Sandra Jackson, of North View Cottage, Gisburn, said she called to see her mother at about 6pm and she was sitting in the kitchen near the Rayburn. Clothes were drying on the rack on the ceiling.

She left her and went to the White Bull but was only there about 15 minutes when someone said there had been a fire.

Miss Jackson told how she tried to get in to rescue her mother but was beaten back by smoke.

Investigating fire officer Raymond Bowker said the fire started in a clothes rack and could have been caused by irradiated heat in the clothes or by the clothes dropping on to the range.

Pathologist Dr W D Salman gave the cause of death as bronchial pneumonia caused by Mrs Jackson being in bed for so long as a result of the fire.

Mr Smith recorded a verdict of accidental death.

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