FIRE fighting is a family affair for the Jarrett boys - true local heroes who carried two women from a blazing house just minutes after being called away from their 'day jobs'.

Cousins Mel and Paul Jarrett took the lead in a rescue hailed as a text book example of what Herefordshire's retained fire response is all about

Mel and Paul belong to the retained crew at Whitchurch near Ross-on-Wye. So when their bleepers went just after 1pm last Friday it was 'down tools' and off.

As the team rushed to the station, a 999 operator at fire control around 25 miles away in Worcester was calming a distressed woman stuck inside a blazing house at Symonds Yat West.

"She kept on asking when will they be here...when are they coming," said Alec Mackie of Hereford and Worcester Fire Brigade.

They were already on the way, and so quick that the woman as still talking to control when Mel and Paul crashed in through the back door.

By then the fire was fierce enough to melt kitchen fittings and fill the house with thick smoke.

Smoke that had overcome one of the women the cousins carried out.

A pet cat was also plucked from the flames.

Both women were taken to hospital after first aid at the scene.

The fire was soon brought under control by the Whitchurch team and back up from Ross, it is thought to have been caused by an oil-fired stove.

To the brigade the 'shout' is a textbook retained turn-out supported by 'excellent' work in control.

For Mel, who works at Kirbee Products, Whitchurch, and Paul, employed by nearby Lowthers, it's what they and the team do - whenever they are called on to do it.