A Dutch holidaymaker has told of how he rescued a five-year-old boy from a burning tent at a Warwickshire campsite.
Alex Tolsma used his bare hands to rip apart the canvas which was engulfed in flames to save William Wright and his mother Sue, from Birmingham, from the fire at the Island Meadow Caravan park in Aston Cantlow.
After helping Mrs Wright out of the tent and patting out the fire on her back, Mr Tolsma returned to save William following his mother's desperate pleas.
The boy suffered substantial burns in the incident on Tuesday night and was airlifted to hospital in Birmingham. He was later transferred to the intensive care unit at the Booth Hall Children's Hospital in Manchester where his condition was described as critical but stable yesterday.
Mr Tolsma has been branded a hero by Warwickshire Fire Service who say his quick actions saved their lives.
Investigations into the incident are continuing but the fire is believed to have been started after a camping stove fell over.
The Dutchman, who was staying at the caravan park with friends, burnt his hands as he tried to pull William from the burning tent.
He said: "The woman, I think it was the mother, was crawling out of the tent and had flames on her back.
"I clapped them out with my hand and my first impression was that she was quite alright but she said 'Where's my boy? Where's my boy?'
"The boy was still in the tent and I put my hands through and ripped the tent apart and saw the boy lying down.
"I took him in my arms and ran out to the water tap and together we were sitting under the water tap."
A spokesman for Warwickshire Fire Service said that Mrs Wright and her son were lucky to be alive after the fire tore through the tent in less than a couple of minutes.
He said: "We received a call at 6.17pm to a fire at a caravan park but by the time we got there the tent fire was out.
"It was only a small two person dome tent made of fibreglass and nylon so the fire would have ripped through it in a matter of minutes.
"A man staying at the park had managed to pull the mother and her young son out of the tent and if he had not acted so quickly they would have no doubt both died.
"This man acted extremely courageously, ignoring the obvious pain to himself and threat to his own life and he suffered bad burns to his hands in rescuing these two people.
"He is definitely a hero and it is lucky that he was on the scene of this tragic accident."
Richard George, who was staying at the caravan park at the time of the accident, said he was shocked by what happened.
"I was in tears afterwards," he said. "It is not something that I'd like to see ever again. The boy was severely burnt."
Peter Cornall of the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents said that campers should be careful to keep fire away from their tents.
"This is the type of accident which happens occasionally but is entirely preventable," he said.
"We recommend that naked flame, be it candles tea lights, should be kept away from tents and cooking should only be performed in large tents with open areas."
