FIREFIGHTER Walter Moore has spoken of the most traumatic moment of his life after saving a three-year-old car crash victim.

The 45-year-old was off duty and driving to a meeting in Teesside when he came across a car crash near Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, last week.

An elderly couple flagged him down and told him that a young boy was critically ill after the car he was travelling in left the road and flipped over.

The three-year-old, from Newton Aycliffe, had gone through the windscreen of his father's car and sustained massive head injuries.

Assistant Divisional Officer Moore, of Bishop Auckland, who is second-in-command of Teesside Airport Fire Rescue Service, said the boy's injuries were horrific.

He said: "I've seen some terrible things in my time, but I really thought the young lad was going to die. His head was split open and he was losing a lot of blood. "His father kept saying, 'please don't let my son die' and all I could do was hold the wound together, contain the bleeding and maintain the poor lad's breathing. "Thankfully, I am a medical technician as well as a firefighter, so I stayed calm and did all I could until the paramedics and the police arrived.

"He was so badly injured that I did not think he would live, but he is still alive and I wish him the best of luck in life."

The boy was rushed to Middlesborough General Hospital's intensive care unit. He received stitches and has since been moved from intensive care into a general ward.

His father, who also sustained minor injuries in the crash, declined to comment last night, but has invited ADO Moore to visit the hospital to visit his son.

ADO Moore said: "When I saw him I could not believe it. He is out of intensive care, he was sat up and he has opened his eyes for the first time.

"It was a bit emotional, but to see that little boy alive, it meant the world to me. His father could not thank me enough and the little lad said, 'you are my friend', which was marvellous. I was over the moon."

ADO Moore took the youngster a toy fire engine and promised to let him have a ride in one of the engines at the airport when he is out of hospital. "Seeing him now, it is like a miracle. Saving someone like that, it makes all the training worthwhile. It was great to see him," said ADO Moore.