A HERO'S welcome is being planned for a Maidstone soldier awarded a top bravery award after putting his life on the line during last year's firefighters' strike.

Private Stuart Duff, 26, was presented with the Queen's Commendation for Bravery last week for his part in a dramatic flat rescue.

He was part of a Breathing Apparatus Rescue Team given just five weeks training to perform a role that normally requires four years experience for full time fire crews.

Private Duff, an infantryman with The Princess of Wales Royal Regiment, were called to what appeared to be a routine fire in a top floor flat in Birmingham.

Green Goddesses, the 1950's engines used by the army during the dispute, had yet to arrive and with a man trapped inside Private Duff and another colleague Lance Cpl Ben Johnson decided they had to go in.

They found a man slumped against a wall, suffering from smoke inhalation and looking as if he was talking to someone across the room.

The pair shouted a warning before moving towards him but were stopped in their tracks when they realised the man was holding a knife.

They wrestled him to the ground and disarmed before carrying him out of the building and to waiting ambulance crews outside.

They then went back into the house despite the searing heat and smoke in the mistaken belief that someone else was trapped inside.

By this time Green Goddess crews had arrived but with hoses too short and no breathing apparatus Private Duff had to go back in a third time to put out the blaze.

It later emerged that the rescued man was not only suffering from serious smoke inhalation but also a mental illness.

Private Duff, a pupil at the former Vinters Boys School, Maidstone, is currently on a six-month tour of duty in Northern Ireland. He was modest about the events that day

He said: "I was surprised to get it. I didn't get much time to think. Only afterwards did I think should I really have gone in there.

"I realised there was quite a danger but like full-time firefighters I was there to do a job at the end of the day. My family were really chuffed about it though."

Private Duff is due to return to his home in Willington Street next month. His wife Kim said her husband can expect a hero's welcome from family and friends.

She said: "I didn't realise at first the gravity of what he had done. He was probably being modest. It was a bit scary thinking about it afterwards.

"We married in May and he was off to Northern Ireland a couple of weeks later so am really looking forward to seeing him and telling him in person how proud I am."