A BUS DRIVER in the United Kingdom has been praised as a hero after helping save a man from a burning building.

By pulling his vehicle up along side the blaze, Andy Waterman was able to help the man leap to safety.

Waterman was flagged down by members of the public after a fire broke out in an Essex flat.

“I asked them what the problem was and they said a man was stuck on the roof of his flat because it was on fire,” he said, according to the Essex County Fire and Rescue Service.

I drove nearer and all I could see was thick, black smoke. I saw the man and thought ‘We’ve got to get him to safety’.

The man, who was naked at the time, jumped to the roof of the bus, and stayed there until fire services are able to bring him to safety.

Waterman told the Telegraph:

I have been driving buses for eight years and nothing like this has happened before. I am just pleased the man is alive.

Assistant Divisional Officer Dave Barritt, incident commander, said:

“The man was trapped on the third floor and there was no way he could get out. If the bus hadn’t been there I don’t know how he would have escaped, the fall could easily have killed him.”

“The bus driver’s actions saved this man’s life.”

The unnamed man, aged in his 40s, was treated for smoke inhalation.

Waterman is now in line for a Chief Fire Officer’s Commendation.

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