A GRANDFATHER has been praised after he risked his life to rescue a disabled woman from a smoke-filled house.

Mike Collins, 68, kicked down the door of a house in Albert Place, Coggeshall, after the woman’s mother raised the alarm.

The former teacher had been sitting at home in Beards Terrace, Coggeshall, when a woman in her nineties knocked at his door.

She told him her daughter had phoned in a distressed state, and the pair rushed to the address in Mr Collins’s car.

He said: “I drove as quickly as I could to Albert Place. When we got there I could smell smoke, but the door was locked.

“The mother had the code for a key safe on the outside, but the door still wouldn’t open, because it was locked from the inside with bolts.

“I decided I would have to smash the door down. I am 68 and not a terribly fit man. I turned around, put my hands against the fence and back-kicked it.”

Mr Collins said when the door opened he was “horrified” when thick, black smoke began pouring out.

He said: “I couldn’t see my hands in front of my face. I thought any minute now the place would go up and I had to get whoever was in there, out.”

Mr Collins said he found the woman sitting in the lounge crying.

With the help of her mother, he managed to carry her out of the house.

He said: “I was holding my breath for dear life. The fireman said if I had been three minutes later she would have been dead.”

Mr Collins received a letter from fire station commander Martin Edey.

It said: “I would like to take this opportunity to formally congratulate you on your commendable actions and your willingness and courage to step forward in such difficult circumstances.

“You responded with both haste and bravery and your actions undoubtedly attributed to a young woman’s life being saved.”

Mr Collins said: “I think it was nice somebody took the time to write me a letter. My wife is proud.”