By Neil Macphail
Aberdeen Press and Journal
BEAULY, Scotland — An off-duty woman firefighter crawled into a neighbour's burning flat and dragged him to safety — then dashed off to the fire station to make up the crew being mustered to fight the flames.
Nikki Hercher, 38, of Croyard Park, Beauly, will tomorrow be honoured for her efforts, carried out in her slippers, when she receives a chief fire officer's commendation at the Highlands and Islands Fire Board meeting.
Last night, Miss Hercher broke from training to recall the drama last October when she was alerted to the fire in the ground-floor flat below her home by shouts from local woman Pat Bruce, of Ferry Lane, who was out walking her dog.
She said: "I saw another neighbour Denise Anderson on the phone to the fire brigade. I opened the flat door a little bit and shouted in but got no answer the first couple of times.
"It was absolutely black as night with the smoke and I could hear the fire burning in the kitchen. Eventually he called back his name and then he called my name.
"I was yelling to him 'follow my voice, follow my voice'. I heard glass breaking and kept shouting at him but was getting no reply by this time."
She added: "At that point I knew I just had to get him out. I crawled in keeping as low as possible and found him lying at the top of the hallway near the living room door. I just grabbed him and dragged him out as fast as I could. I was trying to shut the flat door behind me but the man was kind of jammed on the draught excluder.
"Then Denise grabbed his other arm and we pulled him up the path. It was then that my pager went off and I ran into the house to get other footwear and headed for the fire station.
"All the neighbours pitched in. It was a team effort."
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