Rollerskating superhero to the rescue
Lee Bussey
HE was the brave stranger who pulled a woman to safety when her seafront flat was on fire.
Lee Bussey realised an elderly resident was locked inside her burning home on Marina Court Avenue and smashed a back window to save her before emergency services arrived. But nobody knew who he was until fiancee Melanie Knapp called the Observer to say: “He is my superman.”
Lee, who lives in Park Road, commented: “I just did what I think most people would have done.”
The 36 year old father-of-two was roller-skating on Saturday February 16 in the afternoon when he saw people looking at smoke coming from a building. “There were lots of people there,” he remembered. “I couldn’t understand why no-one else was helping. Two men were shouting for help, and the smoke was billowing out of the window - proper thick black smoke. I went in the garden and took my skates off.”
He and another man smashed a window and Lee climbed in the find to bedroom door locked.
“I could hear the fire crackling,” said Lee. “And I felt sorry for this little old lady trapped in her flat. I saw a fire like this 12 years ago when the lady didn’t survive. She lived across the road from me. There was a double glazed front door that no-one could get through. I think that just made me want to help.” Lee went back outside and put a ladder up to a balcony and then “dragged” the woman out of a window. He then sat down with her, held her hand, and talked with her until the fire crew and paramedics arrived.
“I was speaking to her. She had thought it was a teeny fire and thought it would be alright. But when the firemen walked her through the rooms she saw the actual damaged. She had singed hair, soot around her lips and her hands were black. I thought that lady was very lucky...the fire was in the bathroom - but there was no bathroom left - everything was black.” Proud Melanie added: “He is incredible. But he just doesnt see it.”
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Weather for Bexhill-on-Sea
Monday 20 May 2013
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 12 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 8 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North
