Woman pulled from fire by 'heroic' officers

Two police officers who rescued a woman from a smoke-filled house in Nottinghamshire have been praised.

Neighbours raised the alarm when they heard a loud bang and saw smoke coming from a property on Marly Bank in Mansfield.

After initially being beaten back by smoke, PC Charlie Shaw and PC Adam Munnery followed cries for help and pulled the householder, who was in her 60s, to safety.

Ch Insp Paul Hennessy called the actions "heroic" and said without the officers the householder "would have died or suffered serious injury".

When they arrived at the property on 15 April, officers Shaw and Munnery first smashed the the rear patio doors with a garden slab but found the smoke was too intense to enter, a force spokesman said.

Munnery then forced open the front door and, on hearing shouts, Shaw entered and found the woman upstairs.

Hennessy said: "Without the heroic actions of both officers we could be looking at a very different picture today.

"There is no doubt in my mind the woman would have died or suffered serious injury.

"The property was filled with thick smoke, and the situation was escalating at a rapid speed where every moment counted.

"The fire also had the potential to spread to neighbouring properties."

The woman remains in hospital in a stable condition, and an investigation is under way to understand the cause of the fire, which started in the bathroom.

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