AN heroic Andover duo braved a burning house to rescue a stranded pensioner trapped inside.

George Chapman, from River Way, and his friend Mick Horne, from Pilgrims Way, put their lives on the line to free Maria O'Callaghan after they spotted her Bourne Court home ablaze on Saturday around 9.50am.

They bravely entered what had become an inferno before emergency vehicles arrived.

The two tried to move Mrs O'Callaghan, who was unable to get down the stairs because she was badly burnt and suffers with arthritis.

Her husband Thomas had been struggling in vain to move his wife to safety by dragging her halfway down the stairs on a duvet.

Mick said: "We could see the smoke upstairs and heard Maria screaming from her burns so we put damp towels on them.

"We could see stuff running down the walls and could hear the sirens outside. The time went so slowly."

Moments later, And-over firefighters arri-ved and rescued Mrs O'Callaghan with the help of George, Mick and another, unidentified, woman.

"It was like there was a flame thrower inside," Andover firefighter Rob Collicott said afterwards.

It's believed the fire, which started upstairs, also caused a canister of gas to explode.

Rob Collicott added: "We were lucky because the fire ventilated very quickly through the windows.

"If the windows hadn't broken it would have been horrendously hot."

Eyewitness Diane Preston, of Bourne Court, said: "It was quite scary - I have never seen so much smoke.

"I couldn't have done what George and Mick did - they were very brave."

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