A MAN has described how he rescued his neighbour from her burning house after a gas explosion and was blown to the ground with her when a second blast ripped out the back wall.

The 86-year-old woman was fighting for her life last night after the explosions in Craigshaw Square, Hylton Castle, Sunderland.

Neighbour David Thompson, 43, who was treated at the scene for the effects of smoke inhalation, said: “I was on the phone upstairs when I heard a bang and my daughter shouted ‘Mrs Black’s house is on fire’.

“I came running downstairs and looked in windows and saw she was in flames, screaming.”

Mr Thompson said he smashed the window with a paving stone and ripped out a piece of glass to get into the house.

He said: “I climbed over a coffee table and saw she was walking back into the kitchen. I said, ‘Mrs Black you’re all on fire’. It was on her back and her hair.

“So I grabbed the first thing I could lay my hands on, which was a coat, and wrapped her in it and picked her up and tried to get out the back way.

“She was saying, ‘please David help us’. I said, ‘I am trying to get out I don’t know where your keys are’.”

Mr Thompson said that as he was leaving through the back door, there was another explosion, sending them both flying into the back garden and knocking out the back wall of the kitchen. A spokesman for Tyne and Wear Fire Brigade said 13 firefighters from three community stations in the area attended the scene, at about 10.25am yesterday.

He said: “Fire crews discovered there had been a gas explosion in the kitchen.

“The occupier, an 86-yearold female was found on fire by the neighbour, a 43-yearold man.

“He rescued her by wrapping her in a coat, whereupon a second explosion occurred causing the outer wall of the kitchen to be blown out.

“The officer in charge of the operation would like to praise the swift and selfless action of the neighbour concerned.”