A taxi driver has been hailed a hero after three men were saved from a blaze by firefighters in a dramatic rescue.

Firefighters went to a house in Rayne Road, Braintree, after a passing taxi driver saw smoke coming from the roof at around 4am yesterday.

They rescued one man upstairs in a bedroom and two more in a basement bedroom.

Taxi driver Mark Toms, 34, of Panfield Lane, Braintree, said: "I was driving along and I spotted smoke coming out of the back of the house.

"I pulled up and raised the alarm. I woke a neighbour up because I thought Braintree: he might have a key but he didn't. Then I kicked the door in and tried to get the people out.

"There was a young man in the front room. I didn't know where the others were - there was too much smoke."

Next-door neighbour Sean Haley, 36, said he was woken up by the taxi driver banging on his door.

He added: "The man kept saying there was a fire in the house next door so we went round and found a man lying in the doorway of a front room. There was smoke everywhere and we started trying to drag the man out of the house.

"We were choking and coughing."

"Soon after the firefighters came and they pulled another two out of the basement."

The three rescued men - Andrew Watts, 45, Mark Fletcher, 26, and Edward West, 19 - declined to go to hospital.

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