Hero saves burning man after Camberwell blast

A passer-by used a fire extinguisher to douse a man turned into a human torch by an explosion at a garage and then turned the hose on the blaze which had engulfed the building.

Ryan Byers, 30, sprinted to grab an extinguisher from his girlfriend’s hair salon after seeing the man with his clothes in flames staggering 20 yards from the wrecked building in Denmark Hill, Camberwell.

People rushed to try to help the man yesterday afternoon. Mr Byers said: “I saw a guy come running out in flames so I ran to the salon and picked up an extinguisher and hosed him down.

"Some of his clothes had burned off but he had half a trouser leg still on which was on fire, and so was his neck and chest.” Mr Byers then went back to fight the main blaze.

Armed police raced to the scene amid fears of a bomb blast as 30 firefighters tackled the blaze preceded by an “almighty bang”.

The man set on fire was named locally as Miguel Gutierrez who today was in a serious condition at the burns unit at the Mid Essex Hospital. The explosion was so loud it damaged the eardrums of a woman outside. She was taken to hospital with another woman suffering from smoke inhalation who escaped from the second floor of the building.

The blaze, which wrecked the garage and a flat, is thought to have been caused by a gas leak. It took five fire engines from London Fire Brigade three hours to bring it under control. Dominic Swords, who lives above the garage, was not at home at the time.

He said: “The first I knew was when a friend phoned and said, ‘your flat’s exploding’. ” He said his home was “just a shell”.