A HEROIC chef put his own life at risk to rescue his elderly neighbour from a house fire.

Brave Adam Hart entered the smoke-filled property to rescue the woman, who lives next door to him on Ambassador Close in Mudeford.

The 30-year-old acted swiftly to save his 85-year-old neighbour who was stuck in her home.

Firefighters and paramedics attended and she was taken to hospital. After four days in intensive care she was moved on to the burns unit on Monday.

Mr Hart first became aware of the blaze on Thursday morning after noticing the sound of a fire alarm beeping while he was in his own house. He went outside his front door and saw black smoke pouring out of the windows of the property.

Without hesitation he obtained a key from the safety box and made his way into the house. Upon opening the door, the windows to the house were blown apart.

Despite very limited vision through the thick smoke, Mr Hart, who is head chef of The Kitchen at Chewton Glen, was able to locate the elderly resident and carry her to safety.

“Inside the house you couldn’t see more than a couple of inches. Fortunately I managed to find her and lift her to safety,” he said.

“She had been in there for a long time and was very badly burned and completely black as she was stuck in the house.

“She is housebound so I knew she was going to be in there so phoning for help was a second thought, I just needed to get her out of there – I didn’t think twice.”

Mr Hart placed his neighbour in the recovery position with the assistance of other neighbours who had arrived on the scene and then called for the emergency services who attended and treated the casualty.

After escaping the blaze he shut the front door which helped to prevent the fire from spreading.

The family of the casualty, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “Our thanks go out especially to Adam and also to neighbours Sophie, Stuart and Linda who are always keeping an eye on her. If she had been in there just a minute or two longer she would no longer be with us.”