TWO heroic neighbours saved a woman’s life after breaking a window to haul her from a burning flat.

Firefighters praised the actions of Adam Lewis and his pal Bowa Adams, whose quick thinking meant the woman – who was asleep when the fire broke out last Wednesday – got out of her flat alive.

The pair had returned to Bowa’s flat to collect something at around 8.15pm when a fire broke out in the ground-floor flat of Russet House, Falcon Avenue, Grays.

Adam, 31, who was standing outside the block of flats on the phone to his girlfriend waiting for Bowa, heard a woman screaming for help. He turned the corner and saw her struggling to get out of an awning window.

He rushed to her aid, calling Bowa, who lives on the first floor of the block and had gone upstairs.

Adam, of Seabrooke Rise, Grays, said: “At first I thought it was a candle, then I saw the fire go up really quickly.

“She was screaming for help and was petrified, but couldn’t get to the front door because of the fire. She said she had been asleep.

“She was trying to get out through a side window. If we hadn’t been there, she wouldn’t have got out, it was lucky.”

The window, which was already ajar, was acting as a vent, with black smoke billowing out as the fire took a hold of the small flat.

In a race against time, the pair managed to force the window off its hinges and help the woman out.

Adam added: “We were breathing in the smoke, too, but that’s someone’s life, you don’t care about inhaling smoke.”

Bowa, 30, who is a steel erector, said: “Adam was trying to help her out the window when I joined him. I got behind the window to get leverage and between us, we managed to snap it.

“These flats are quite small, I was thinking we aren’t going to have long. “It was a real race against time, but we stayed calm and as a result managed to get her out alive.

“She was really lucky. I wasn’t going to go back to my house. We’d popped back by chance really and Adam normally comes in.”

Adam and Bowa have been nominated by fire crews, who had the fire out in about half an hour, to receive the chief fire officer’s Letters of Congratulation.

Grays station officer Andy Marshall said: “The window involved was seen to be acting as a chimney and venting the fire, so this would have placed them at considerable risk of smoke inhalation while carrying out their rescue.

“This was an extremely brave act.”