Scaffolders up for bravery award after saving young Mansfield family from burning home

Two builders are to be put forward for bravery awards after saving the lives of a family following a blaze in a Nottinghamshire property.

The fire began in Mansfield yesterday morning after a cooker was accidentally left on, threatening the lives of a mother and her two young sons.

The two scaffolders, Gary Collins and Martyn Oliver, ran to the house with a ladder when screams were heard. They found a woman leaning out of a first-floor window holding a baby, who told them her other child was in a bedroom at the back of the house.

Oliver smashed the windows and entered the burning building in search of the older boy.

The watch manager at Mansfield fire station said that had it not been for the builders' actions, “we could have been looking at three fatalities”.

The chief fire officer is to nominate the two construction workers for a bravery commendation.

The family and one of the rescuers were taken to hospital for medical checks.

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