Son braved fire to rescue father
Neighbours were also alerted
A MAN saved his father from his burning flat in Llanelli as flames were mere centimetres away from engulfing him.
Justin Griffiths, from Llwynhendy, was first alerted to a fire in the area when he saw and smelled smoke from his flat in Clos Cefn-y-Maes.
Justin looked out of his window and saw the flames were coming from his father Lee Griffiths’s neighbouring apartment in Clos Cefn-y-Maes.
“My father was centimetres away from the flames, so if I had been a minute later it could have been a completely different story” said the 32-year-old. After saving his father he knocked on all the other tenants’ doors.
A 32-YEAR-OLD man saved his father from his burning flat in Llanelli as flames were mere centimetres away from engulfing him.
Justin Griffiths, from Llwynhendy, was first alerted to a fire in the area when he saw and smelled smoke from his flat in Clos Cefn-y-Maes late Monday morning.
Justin looked out of his window and saw the flames were coming from his father Lee Griffiths’s neighbouring apartment in Clos Cefn-y-Maes.
The 32-year-old dad walked through the front door of his 53-year-old father’s property and was met with a mass of smoke and flames covering the majority of the front room.
“I walked through the main door and my father was in the front room where the fire was.
“More or less all of the room was alight, I could hardly see anything, there was just smoke everywhere,” recalled Justin.
“My father was centimetres away from the flames, so if I had been a minute later it could have been a completely different story.” “He was on the arm of the chair and within touching distance of the flames so I just did what any son would have done,” he said.
“I had to drag him out of the apartment.
“It was a very disturbing day for me and all the other members of the community.”
And it was not only Justin’s father that the 32-year-old managed to save.
As soon as Justin had helped his father out of the burning building, he proceeded to knock on all the other tenants’ doors alerting them to the fire and telling them to get out of the building. The Cefny-Maes resident then proceeded to call the emergency services.
Mr Griffiths was later taken by ambulance to Price Philip Hospital in Llanelli for treatment.
People in the neighbourhood hailed their local hero for ensuring that the other residents got out of the building as quickly as possible.
Ellie Samuel, aged 17, and Emma Whitten, 27, witnessed the fire and said: “There was smoke everywhere and we heard the window smash.
“It was actually terrifying. Our friend was a hero and went in there and knocked on people’s doors to get them out.”
“We saw one of our neighbours climb out of the window because there was so much smoke at the front door,” added the pair.
A woman living in the flat opposite Mr Griffiths’s flat wished to remain nameless but said: “The first I heard was a neighbour banging at the door and shouting for me to get out, it was horrible.”
A fire service spokesman said the fire was put out and the property boarded up.
A crowd of onlookers gathered as firefighters dealt with the blaze.
A spokesman for the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue service said fire crews from Llanelli, Tumble, Gorseinon and Pontarddulais were at the scene.
A spokesman for the Welsh Ambulance Service said: “We were called on Monday, August 12, at 12.03pm to reports of a fire in a residential area in Llanelli.
“We responded with one emergency ambulance and crews from our Hazardous Area Response Team.”