EXPLOSION

Jackie Mouat, 41, dashed into her neighbour's home after the explosion blew out the upstairs and downstairs walls of the 88-year-old woman's home in Ash Road in Newport early on Thursday morning.

She escorted the shocked and badly burned pensioner to safety - as the house threatened to collapse around her.

It was Jackie's first day back at work following a five-week dream holiday to Australia and Singapore.

As she rescued the shocked pensioner - her emergency bleeper was going-off - requesting her to attend the incident.

Colleagues of the firefighter have praised her actions. Assistant Divisional Officer Steve White said: "Obviously, Jackie is used to working in a team. She took this on without any thought to her own safety. She gave no thought to the stability of the house. Her only interest was getting this woman out."

The pensioner is "lucky to be alive" after a gas explosion tore through her house in Newport on the Isle of Wight.

The massive explosion blew out both side walls of the 88-year-old's house in Ash Road - leaving the woman with severe burns.

She was taken to St Mary's Hospital in Newport where she is being treated for first and second-degree burns to her face, shoulders and hands.

Jackie, who lives opposite the pensioner rushed to the scene - seconds after the explosion ripped through the semi-detached house at 7.41am.

She found the pensioner wandering shocked and dazed surrounded by the rubble from her devastated home.

Jackie told the Daily Echo she was getting ready to go to work when she heard a "loud explosion" coming from the house opposite.

She said: "I looked out of the bedroom window and saw lots of dust coming out of the passage between the two houses."

She rushed over to the house and saw that the back wall had completely collapsed. She ran inside and saw the elderly woman wandering through her kitchen "in a daze".

She said: "She was just walking around. She was obviously very shaken. She just said to me that she had been caught in a fire. She is a very lucky lady."

Jackie helped the shocked pensioner, who has not been named, next door where she was comforted by neighbours before being taken to hospital for treament.

Emergency services including the Island's Fire and Rescue Department and gas company Transco were also called to the scene.

As Jackie was helping the woman, her retained firefighter's pager was bleeping - indicating to her that an emergency was taking place.

It was only later that it emerged she was being called to attend the explosion.

Jackie said: "It has been quite a start to my first day back at work. My instinct was just to get her out. The house was very unstable."