Window Cleaner To The Rescue

Window cleaner to the rescue - Darren Fox saved an elderly woman after her toaster with faulty wiring caught fire.

​"Instinct just took over," Walsall window cleaner speaks after saving elderly woman from fire: An heroic window cleaner who came to the rescue of an elderly woman in need after her toaster set on fire in her Walsall flat has said "instinct just took over him." Darren Fox, who owns Fox Cleaning, was cleaning the woman's windows in her Rushall home when he spotted the smoke. He made his way inside, led the 89-year-old to safety and put the fire out with towels.

Speaking to the Advertiser after, the 38-year-old said: "I was really worried and scared but everything I did was instinctive. Instinct just took over me. "I am proud of what I did and it does feel like I was a hero. I rang my wife Lisa straight away and she congratulated me and couldn't believe it! "Firefighters told me I was really brave and that it could easily have been fatal. Nothing like this has ever happened in my 14 years of window cleaning but I would do it all over again if I had to."

Thirteen firefighters used breathing apparatus, a hose reel jet and positive pressure ventilation fan to tackle the blaze, which set fire to curtains in the living room on the ground floor of the semi-detached house.

The toaster set on fire at 9.45 am on Tuesday morning (April 12) at the woman's flat in Lichfield Street, Rushall and Darren immediately sprang into action to save her. He recalled: "I was cleaning her windows and I saw smoke coming through. I looked in and saw the toaster on fire so I went to the front door and was banging on it. She didn't know about the fire at first because she was in the bathroom but I shouted to her to come to the door and let me in.

"She was terrified and didn't know what to do but I told her to get out of the flat and I put a towel on the toaster. The fire was still coming through tough, it took four or five towels to stop. After I had done that I called the fire service and they arrived in two to three minutes."

Watch commander Richard Cooper, of Bloxwich fire service, heaped praise on the window cleaner. He said: "He did a terrific job, he was very brave. He was doing his rounds and saw smoke coming through the window. Aware the woman was inside, he banged on the door for her attention and when he got inside he isolated the electrics and put damp towels over the toaster. "Because the toaster had a plastic surround it could easily have released toxic smoke and been a lot worse. The woman was very shaken up and didn't really understand what had gone on."

The local window cleaner sounded the alarm after seeing smoke come from the windows of the property in Lichfield Street, Rushall and rang West Midlands Fire Service.