Explosion: A fire at a house on the Southbrook caused the windows to explode onto the postman delivering the mail.(Picture by Alice Dyer)
Published Date: 19 February 2009
By Alice Dyer
SHARDS of glass exploded onto a caring postman who desperately tried to see if anyone was inside a burning house.
The postman, known as Apple, who delivers the mail on the Southbrook estate in Daventry, was doing his usual round on Friday morning when he found himself in the middle of an emergency situation.
Apple, who works for Royal Mail, said: “I could smell something on my round and when I got to Frobisher Close it was getting worse.
“I posted the mail through one of the doors and the dogs didn’t bark like they usually do – they are normally up at the window.
“I carried on delivering to the next few doors and then I saw the neighbour phoning the fire service. I could see smoke coming out on the back of a house – the front seemed intact at the time.”
Apple ran back to the house and started banging on the door and the window to see if anyone was inside.
He continued: “Then a top window just exploded. It showered glass everywhere.
“I couldn’t see anyone moving. Another window blew out and the windows starting falling out.
“I was covered in glass and I knew I had to get out of there but I was concerned that someone was inside.
“If anyone had been, I would have tried to get them out.
“There was glass and pieces of window flying everywhere.”
Four fire crews and police arrived at the scene in Frobisher Close at around midday and began to put the fire out and cordon off the area.
Apple, who inhaled a lot of smoke and had glass in his hair, carried on with his round.
A police spokesman said: “We were called to the scene to assist the fire service.
“We are not treating it as suspicious, it was an accidental fire.”
The fire service said that no-one was hurt in the fire and the house was quite badly damaged, but was unable to comment any further.