A Bath-based PCSO, Ashley Bintcliffe, has been given two bravery awards from the Royal Humane Society for rescuing a badly-burned man from his blazing car.
Ashley, 27, was off-duty in April 2014 when he came across the fire in a layby on the B3107 Holt to Melksham road in Wiltshire.
Despite the danger of the car exploding into flames Ashley, together with a member of the public, Laura Banks, who was first on the scene and who’d called 999, ignored their own safety to pull the man from the car.
Sadly the 50-year-old man died three days later. An inquest recorded a verdict of suicide.
Ashley said: “It was an awful scene – flames were coming from the car and the inside was full of smoke. I couldn’t see anyone inside.
“I told other people to stand back and used my car jack to smash the windows.
“It was so hot that the car door handle melted off in my hand, but I managed to get the door open and pull the man out.
“He was badly burned and unconscious, but was breathing.
“I’d inhaled a lot of smoke and just couldn’t drag him very far. That’s when Mrs Banks came to help me and we managed pull him further away to a safer area before the burning car started to explode.
“We kept talking to him to try to keep him breathing until the air ambulance arrived.”
Ashley, who’s been a PCSO for nearly five years, needed hospital treatment for minor cuts to his hand and smoke inhalation and was off duty for two weeks suffering from chest and back pains.
He said: “It was one of those times when you just have to take action and not think about your own safety. I think Mrs Banks was particularly brave and selfless, putting herself in real danger to help another person.”
At a ceremony in London, (Wednesday 6th May) Ashley and Laura Banks were presented with their bravery awards by Princess Alexandra.
Ashley received an RHS bronze medal and the society’s prestigious Police Medal for 2014 – awarded for the first time to a non-warranted police officer.
He said: “It’s great to be recognised and I’m exceptionally proud and honoured to have been given this Police Medal.”
Ashley was also in the news in November last year after rescuing some troublesome swans that became confused in the Widcombe area of Bath.
You can read more about his ‘Hot Fuzz’ moment here.
