A man who, 18 years ago, was rescued from a house fire when he was just a baby has been reunited with the heroic firefighters who saved his life.
In 2002, when Brian Mottram was 18-months-old, a fire broke out at his home in Thornby Gardens, Edmonton.
Brian’s dad, Clive, attempted to try and rescue his son from the house, but he was unable to get into the burning property because of the thick smoke.
When the LFB’s Edmonton Green Watch arrived at the scene, Firefighters Simon Cullen and Billy Merrifield entered the burning property wearing breathing apparatus.
After risking their own lives as they searched for the baby as the fire raged around them, they located Brian in a first-floor bedroom.
Brian, who is now 19-year-olds, suffered 44% burns and he was rushed to a specialist burns hospital.
Medical staff gave Brian just a 5% chance of surviving his horrific injuries. But, despite the odds, Brian pulled through.
Last Wednesday, Brian visited Edmonton Fire Station along with his partner Jessica, who is expecting their first child, and his dad, Clive.
Brian met with the crew who saved his life, including Billy, who is still on Edmonton Green Watch, and Simon, who has now left the Brigade but travelled to meet Brian.
Simon was around five years into the job at the time of the incident, and although he had attended many house fires, he knew it was something out of the ordinary.
Brian (centre) pictured with his partner, Dad (eight) and the two firefighters who saved his life
Simon said:
“We had been told the child was definitely in the room and I remember hoping that he wasn’t and that he was somewhere else because of the state of the room, but then we found him.
“At first I thought he was a doll but quickly realised he wasn’t and I just picked him up and carried him outside into the front garden.”
Firefighter Merrifield was in his first year on the job at the time of the fire and recalled that it was his first “persons reported” fire where there was actually someone inside.
He said:
“I can remember driving around the corner, and a neighbour had a ladder up and was trying to break the window. Simon found Brian in the bedroom, and I remember him being laid down on someone’s fire tunic and being given oxygen before he was taken away in the ambulance.
“We did get updates about him, but we were assuming the worst – he was barely alive – then when we came back on duty for the next tour, we found out he was still fighting and pushing on and against all the odds he made it through.
“Fortunately we don’t get that many jobs involving children so this one has definitely stuck in my mind – last time Simon and I met up we had even talked about it, so it was an incredible surprise to see Brian.
“What happened that day and at the station last week – it doesn’t happen often and it was really special.”
Simon travelled from Weymouth where he is now based to attend the reunion and said it was really nice to see Brian now.
“I couldn’t believe that all these years later we’ve seen him all grown up,” he said.
“He wanted to piece together a few things about what happened and it was nice to be able to help with that.”
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