London: Australian man ran into inferno to rescue residents – VIDEO

Australian hero who lives near the London tower block inferno charges inside the building and uses an axe to rescue an elderly couple trapped on the second floor.
As the Grenfell Tower went up in flames an Australian man risked his life, running into the inferno with an axe in a desperate effort to rescue the hundreds trapped inside.

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Jody Martin moved from Sydney to London a decade ago and was sitting at home in his apartment in the city’s west on Tuesday night when he noticed a glow outside.

Realising instantly that a building was seriously alight Mr Martin and his housemate ran towards the inferno, before bursting into the tower and using an axe they found to free an elderly couple trapped behind their apartment door.

Mr Martin told Channel Seven when he first ran into the burning high-rise the blaze had only just started, but quickly escalated.

‘I was just running around the building shouting at people, “get out of the building, get out of the building”,’ Mr Martin said.

‘Initially one of the fire officers said they might not be the best course of action you need to just calm down.

‘I said: “Mate, you need to come around and look at the other side”.’

Within just minutes the fire began to spread quickly, something construction experts have since said may have been due to the building’s cladding.

‘The whole side of the building from the second floor all the way to the top was ablaze and it was moving at a pace, it was moving quickly,’ Mr Martin said.

Source: London tower fire: Australian expat describes trying to help residents of burning apartment block – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)