A St Neots woman who risked her life to save her neighbour from a burning building has been thanked for her selfless actions.

Pam Brehaut, who lives in The Close, a sheltered housing development in Cambridge Street, ran into a house that was on fire to save her elderly neighbour.

The 66-year-old said she decided to go and help when she saw smoke coming out of the house.

She said: “We have a pad in our communal room that shows us where the fire is. Usually it is a false alarm, but this time we could see smoke. I realised that it was coming from one of the other houses so ran towards it.

“When I got in there my neighbour didn’t realise that there was smoke coming from the bathroom. As soon as I opened the bathroom door I could see the flames and knew we needed to get out.

“I tried to stay as calm as I could and closed the door, and made sure we left the building as soon as possible.

“I’ve done quite a lot of fire training over the years so when it came to it the adrenaline just kicked in and I wasn’t scared. I know that anyone else would have done it for me.”

Pam was presented with a bunch of flowers by social housing provider Luminus, which manages the development, to say ‘thank you’ for her actions.

Luminus managing director, Nigel Finney, said: “She [Pam] is a wonderful example of what it means to be a good neighbour. We are very grateful for her unselfish actions which, no doubt, prevented a more serious incident from occurring.”

Luminus are now encouraging Huntingdonshire residents to nominate members of the community like Pam as part of its Community Inspiration Awards.

Nominations are now open for the awards and people are encouraged to send in submissions for those they believe are deserving of one of thee awards. To nominate someone log on to the awards website: www.communityinspirationawards.org.uk/nominate.

Nominations close on Friday, September 21. The awards ceremony will take place on October 23.