By Ted JeoryA PARAMEDIC has praised a quick-thinking youngster who saved her mother's life in a house fire.Steve Colmer said the 11-year-old girl was a “real hero” after spotting her mother's clothing had caught fire during the blaze, calmly dousing the smouldering clothes and then calling the ambulance service for help.

By Ted Jeory

A PARAMEDIC has praised a quick-thinking youngster who saved her mother's life in a house fire.

Steve Colmer said the 11-year-old girl was a “real hero” after spotting her mother's clothing had caught fire during the blaze, calmly dousing the smouldering clothes and then calling the ambulance service for help.

He added had the youngster not acted as quickly as she did, her 35-year-old mother, who has undergone surgery for 30% burns, would “undoubtedly” have died.

Emergency services were called to a house fire in Shalford Road, Rayne, near Braintree, on Sunday night.

Mr Colmer, a paramedic with Essex Ambulance Service, had just finished another job in the area and was on the scene within five minutes.

He said: “I went into a downstairs room, which was heavily smokelogged. There was a little girl trying to talk to her mum, who was in a huge amount of pain.

“It's not clear exactly what happened, but the mother had very serious burns. The girl was so calm, she'd discovered her mum's clothes were smouldering and taken the top half of them off.

“That had managed to stop most of the burning and she'd then called for help from the ambulance service.”

Mr Colmer took the rest of the smouldering material off the woman and gave her fluids and pain relief, but the smoke was affecting his rescue attempt.

“We couldn't breathe in there. I asked the girl to put her dog away, open all the windows and get some wet towels,” he added.

“She was such a good girl, a real hero. She must have been terrified, but she remained calm - her mum would undoubtedly have died if it had not been for her actions. She's very lucky to have a daughter like that.”

The mother, who has not been named, was taken to Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, with serious burns to most of her upper body and right leg. She was in a stable condition yesterday after undergoing surgery.

Her daughter was treated for smoke inhalation at Broomfield Hospital and later transferred to St John's Hospital, Chelmsford, before being discharged yesterday.

Mr Colmer was also treated for smoke inhalation at Broomfield Hospital and was discharged on Sunday night.

Essex fire service said it was investigating the cause of the blaze, which started at 8.05pm.

ted.jeory@eadt.co.uk