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This is who Sarbaz Barznji isHero neighbour runs into smoke-filled flats twice to rescue woman from fireA dad risked his life when he ran into a smoke-filled flat twice to try and save his trapped neighbour after a blaze, thought to have been started by arsonists, tore through a car park under council flats in South London.
Sarbaz Barznji, 36, was woken by a loud explosion in the early hours of June 23 and when he looked out of his bedroom window he saw thick smoke billowing from the neighbouring three-storey block of flats in Baldry Gardens, in Streatham.
The fire destroyed a ground-floor garage and a car, while seven women, a man and five children were treated at the scene by London Ambulance Service and seven of them were taken to hospital.
Recalling the "terrifying" experience, Sarbaz told My London: "I saw a lot of smoke coming from the building next door to me so I called the fire service and they reassured me that help was on the way.
"One of my neighbours managed to escape with his toddler son, but he was shouting in panic and told me that his wife was stuck in the building.
"He was really sick after running through the smoke and coughing a lot and he couldn't go back, so I ran into the building. The smoke was like nothing I had ever seen before, it was so thick, and I was holding my face with my T-shirt over it."
Sarbaz "started kicking the [woman's front] door trying to break it" but was soon "struggling to breathe and couldn't see anything" so he went back down the stairs.
In a heroic act, the 36-year old dad-of-two decided to make a second attempt to get into the flat.
He explained: "I put my phone torch on to try to see better and went back up the stairs and started kicking the door again, but then my breathing really deteriorated and I had to get out.
"Thankfully, my neighbour's wife managed to get out [she eventually was able to drag herself out of the flat through the front door].
"She fell down the stairs and grabbed one of the neighbours and they both managed to get to safety."
The emergency services soon responded and 25 firefighters and four fire engines were able to quickly control the blaze.
Sarbaz is a dad to two young children, Sarbaz's neighbours said they were "really grateful" to him for risking his life to try and save the woman - an act which still gives him flashbacks and has caused damage to his kidneys due to smoke inhalation.
"It was really scary," he added. "I mean, even now when I walk back through the corridors I still get scary flashbacks to the corridors being blanketed with smoke.
"I didn't know the extent of the fire when I ran into it - I remember thinking about the Grenfell fire as I was running into the smoke.
"There was a time that I really didn't know if I would make it out alive."
As well as his grateful neighbours, Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy has praised Sarbaz for his bravery.
Posting on Facebook, she wrote: "Kudos to local Streatham Labour activist Sarbaz Barznji, who ran towards a smoke-filled flat twice to try and rescue residents. Wishing Sarbaz and other residents a speedy recovery."
https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-lo ... d-20932035
