QUICK-thinking radio user Brian Bolton saved the day after a fire broke out in a wood near Kirkby Lonsdale.

Brian, from Hoghton, near Blackburn, was taking part in a fund-raising radio event with the Central Lancashire Amateur Radio Club.

He was camping in an isolated spot and signalling to his fellow radio buffs when he spotted flames and heard an explosion.

Miles from a phone, all he could do was use his radio to send an SOS out over the airways.

The message was instantly picked up by Jack Proctor in Settle but as he was out on the fells himself, he had to send out another plea for help.

This time a man in Wilmslow, Cheshire, heard the message, realised it was an emergency and phoned the police.

Brian said: "We had been running our annual radio event to raise money for the Cave Rescue Organisation. When I saw the flames we were quite a distance from a phone so the only thing I could do was use the radio equipment."

Seven minutes after Brian's original SOS call, the police and fire brigade arrived. Brian said: "It could have got really out of hand if the fire brigade hadn't arrived when they did."

Chief Inspector David Harrison, of Penrith Police, said the fire could have caused a major problem, particularly considering the recent dry spell and he said: "The radio hams might have saved someone getting hurt."

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