Navy diver rescues elderly woman from a burning home after her toast catches fire

A GREAT-great grandmother has been reunited with the ‘hero’ who rescued her from her burning home after a toaster caught fire.

Navy clearance diver Chris Wright with Pat Andrews, who he rescued. Picture: Adam Yip / Manly Daily

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A GREAT-GREAT grandmother who thought she was “a goner” when trapped in her burning home and the passer-by who rescued her from the choking smoke were reunited on Tuesday.

Pat Andrews, 89, said she would probably have died if it wasn’t for the courage of Chris Wright, who plucked her from her Balgowlah weatherboard house as the fire began to take hold.

 

Fire, smoke and water damage in Pat Andrews' kitchen in Balgowlah.

 

The blaze started after a lunchtime bread bun got stuck in the toaster before the flames spread across the counter top and into the kitchen curtains.

Mr Wright, a warrant officer in the Royal Australian Navy’s elite Clearance Diving Team, was walking past the house in Balgowlah Rd on April 17, with his five-year-old son, Brody, when he heard the smoke alarm go off.

At a meeting arranged by police at Dee Why Police Station on Tuesday, Mrs Andrews recounted that while much of the incident remained a blur, she vividly remembered WO Wright, of Seaforth, emerging from the dense, black smoke.

“I couldn’t get the fire extinguisher to work and then I dropped it,” Mrs Andrews said.

“I got in a bit of a panic and threw a fire blanket on the flames but it was still in its packet and the fire spread across the counter and then up the wall.

“I ran into the hallway, I was frozen, I didn’t know what to do. I shouted ‘Oh God, someone please help me’,” said Mrs Andrews, who turns 90 in a fortnight.

“Then I felt someone just scoop me up and rush me out the back door and down the back steps. It was Chris, he sat me in a garden chair.

“If it hadn’t been for him I was a goner. I’d have ended up like a bit of burnt toast.”

WO Wright, who has served as a bomb disposal technician in Afghanistan with the Australian Defence Force, said when he first heard the alarm there was no sign of smoke.

“I opened the back door and it looked like the whole room was on fire,” he said.

“I shouted out if anyone was home and I heard a noise, sort of like, ‘Help’.

“There were a lot of flames, up to the roof. Pat was in the hallway, hanging on to her walker, with thick smoke everywhere.”

After WO Wright rescued Mrs Andrews he went back inside, armed with a garden hose, and checked in case there were more occupants.

 

What's left of the toaster in Pat Andrews' kitchen in Balgowlah.

 

He was able to douse most of the flames, except for the burning toaster as Fire and Rescue and police arrived.

“A firefighter in breathing apparatus then came in and told me to get out,” he said.

Mrs Andrews, born in Portland, near Lithgow, has six children, 20 grandchildren, 42 great grandchildren and two great great grandchildren.

“Chris is my hero. He really is. I’m still here to enjoy my birthday thanks to him.”