A MAN who saved an elderly pensioner from a house fire is being hailed a hero by neighbours and council workers who work near the pensioner's home.

But Billy Gorrell, 60, is a reluctant hero who has been telling workmates that what he did "is all in day's work".

Billy's act of bravery came after his colleague John Riley, 27, spotted smoke billowing from a terraced house in Grosvenor Road, Prescot.

John, of Walton, Liverool, kicked down the front door of the house while Billy asked neighbours if the house was occupied. As Billy, who works for Kennedy Asphalt, tried to find out if anyone was inside John got down on his hands and knees in the house and tried to crawl through the thick black smoke that billowing out into the street.. He dashed out into the street and was given a damp teatowel by one of the neighbours to protect him against the smoke and he and Billy, who is also deaf, made several attempts to get into the house.

Eventually Billy, of Page Moss, found his way into the middle room, where he found the pensioner. He recalls: "The poor bloke was in shock and he was just stood rigid in the middle of the room. I knew there was no way I was going to get him out of the front of the house and I had to get him out the back door, but he just wouldn't budge. One of the neighbours told me that he was deaf so I tried to use sign language, but he couldn't understand the signals I was making to him."

Billy eventually managed to get the pensioner, who is thought to be in his 70s out of the back door of the house.

But back at the front workmate John, who had been joined by John O'Shea and Tony Baxendale of Knowsley Council's Housing and Environmental Department, was becoming increasingly worried.

The two council workers were trying to put out the fire with extinguishers and they had to keep John from going into the house to find Billy. Just after Billy rescued the pensioner a fire engine and ambulance arrived at the scene.

Billy, said: "After the fire all the lads I work with and the lads from the Council depot were calling me a hero. But at the end of the day I did what I had to do. We knew there was someone in the house and we had to get out, anybody in my position would have done the same thing."

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