A SIMPLE night-time trip to the kitchen for a glass of water turned into a dramatic rescue when a fire broke out in a pensioner's home.
Johanne Fontaine, 32, got up at around 4am on Wednesday, January 5, when she noticed smoke billowing passed her window from the maisonette next door.
The mother-of-one, of Sorenson Court, Crescent Road, Leyton, immediately alerted her husband Richard, who was sleeping upstairs.
She said: “I don't know what it was but something made me look towards the window.
“I screamed, 'Richard, there's a fire in the flat' and he just pulled on his trousers and ran down the stairs barefoot to next door, like He-man.”
The couple repeatedly shouted through the letterbox of the burning flat, where a partially-sighted pensioner lived.
When the distressed woman finally responded, the couple were able to guide her towards her front door.
As Mr Fontaine opened the door and went to the woman's aid and the two were engulfed in smoke.
Mrs Fontaine added: “The next thing I know he passes her to me and all she was saying was, 'I'm burning, I'm burning'.”
“Her clothes looked like they were stuck to her skin and when I grabbed her she was burning and smoke was coming off her.”
The police then arrived and evacuated about 30 people, from both the first and second floor, before the fire-fighters tackled the blaze.
Some of the police officers suffered smoke inhalation, but they did not require hospital treatment.
The woman was taken to Whipps Cross University Hospital and later transferred to the burns unit at Broomfield Hospital in Essex, where she is still being treated.
Police describe her injuries as 'life changing'.
The fire was brought under control at just after 5am and it is not being treated as suspicious.
Mr Fontaine said: “It was only a few hours later that I thought ‘what if we hadn't woke up’, who knows what could have happened to her or us if the fire came into our flat.
“At the time I just did what I think anybody in my position would have done.”
Mr and Mrs Fontaine were due to visit their neighbour today but she is still sedated.
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