A YOUNG firefighter has been praised for dashing to the aid of a woman who had doused her clothes in petrol and set light to herself on a garage forecourt.

Paul Donovan rugby-tackled the blazing woman and wrapped her in a fire blanket as customers watched in horror at the Peugeot garage in Canterbury.

The woman is still in a critical but stable condition in hospital. Fire chief Rupert Roberts praised the firefighter’s courage which saved the woman’s life and possibly prevented a much greater disaster.

The drama began at about 12.20pm on Tuesday when the 38-year-old woman arrived at the garage in Upper Bridge Street in a wheelchair. Staff and customers saw her pour petrol from one of the pumps over herself. They talked to her while officers arrived from police and fire stations.

Mr Donovan, who scorched his face saving the woman, said: “She was smothered in petrol. She flicked a cigarette lighter a couple of times and then her body was covered in flames. I’ve been to incidents when people have threatened to do it, but never seen it happen.

“I just ran at her, rugby-tackled her and smothered her in the fire blanket. There was no time to feel frightened. It was just part of my job. I didn’t feel the pain of the singeing on my face. I was working on adrenalin at that time.”

The woman, thought to be mentally ill, was transferred to a specialist burns unit at East Grinstead in west Sussex.

Mr Roberts, the fire brigade’s station commander in Canterbury, said: “If fire had spread to a building it would have been trouble.”

Mr Donovan was also hailed a hero in April, 2002, when he resuscitated a 13-year-old girl overcome by smoke in a fire in Folkestone.