Family rescue OAP from fire

A sharp-eyed car passenger helped save the life of an old woman trapped in her smokefilled Paisley flat.

Mrs Rhona Barr screamed to others in the moving vehicle: “There’s a fire in that house.”

Moments later, her husband and brother-inlaw rescued the 78-yearold victim they found semi-conscious on the floor.

And as police praised the family’s bravery, pensioner Mrs Flora Rennie was recovering in hospital.

A spokesman at the Royal Alexandra Hospital said: “She’s had a fairly good night and is fairly comfortable.”

It was understood she had received treatment for a head gash and smoke inhalation.

The fire drama happened in Mrs Rennie’s George Street flat.

Mrs Barr said:“I was in the back seat of the car and suddenly saw flames belching out of a window.

“At first I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

Immediately, her husband John, 27, and her brother-in-law Jim, 22, dashed from the car and headed up the stairs to the flat.

They forced open the door, to be met by a wall of smoke.

Moments later, they found Mrs Rennie lying on the kitchen floor. She was semi-conscious.

Mrs Barr, of Walker Street, in the town’s west end, said:“They managed to pull the woman out of the house and bring her down the stairs safely to the street.

“She appeared to have a gash on her head perhaps caused through falling.”