JNF president in daring fire rescue

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Stuart Romm, president of the NSWJewish National Fund, risked his life rescuing his neighbour from his blazing home.

Stuart Romm

Romm was in the upstairs office of his Bellevue Hill home on Tuesday evening skyping his grandchildren in Israel when he heard a loud bang from his next door neighbour’s home.

He told J-Wire: “I looked out of the window and saw flames leaping 20ft into the air and was immediately concerned for the safety of me neighbour.”

82-yr-old Sid Green, who is not Jewish, was asleep in the front of his home totally unaware of the inferno which was ripping through the kitchen at the back.

Romm continued: “After dialling 000, I ran to the front door and although I was able to break through the security screen, I could not budge the front door. Sid did wake up…but thought I was a burglar trying to break in. I ran around the house to the back which was well ablaze…and through the flames in the kitchen I could see Sid standing there. He has no toes but can walk with the aid of a stick…but he seemed frozen to the spot. In what has to be a miracle, I ran through the flames to the other side of the kitchen and reached him. My attempts to carry him using the standard fireman’s lift failed and I dragged him back through the flames to safety. It was all over in 90 seconds. He was coughing and spluttering but he was unharmed…and so was I.”

The only effect the fire had was to singe Romm’s jumper.

Romm added: “I reacted through sheer instinct…I didn’t think for a second…it really was a miracle.”

Romm said that he “talked every day” with his neighbour  and that “anyone would have done the same thing”.

Sid Green stayed at Romm’s home until 3 a.m. when one of his three daughters picked him up.

For Manchester-born Stuart Romm this was more than another day in the office but he added: “In my capacity as a business manager, I have witnessed and been involved in the evacuation of a few industrial fires.”