A QUICK-thinking nine-year-old boy has been hailed as a hero for being the first to spot a fire from which a man was rescued.

Bradley Limbachia raised the alarm when he saw smoke and flames coming from the upstairs window of a flat in Corporation Road, Gillingham.

Bradley, of Camden Road, Gillingham, said: "I saw flames which were getting bigger and bigger, so I said to my friends 'there's a fire' and I pointed to it.

"[A friend's] mum dialled 999 then she started banging on the door of the flat because she saw a man go in the flat earlier, then another person tried doing the same.

"Then Mr Mill came along and he went in the house and dragged a man out just as the fire engines were arriving. Mr Mill is a hero but I think I am, too."

Father-of-two Ben Mill, of Corporation Road, Gillingham, has been praised by fire chiefs for kicking in the door and rescuing the flat's occupant, who was slumped in the living room.

* See the Medway Messenger (Friday, July 20) for the full story.