A man who pulled a teenage girl from a burning cabin in Port Fairy says he didn't think twice about helping out.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Benjamin Martin joined two other men in saving the 14-year-old girl from a burning cabin.
Mr Martin, Stephan Fourie and Benjamin van der Burgt were all at the BIG4 Port Fairy Holiday Park back in December 2017.
Childhood friends Mr Martin and Mr van der Burgt were holidaying with their families when they heard smoke detectors going off.
"I leapt out of bed and when I worked out what was going on, I went straight to a small fire hose that was close by," Mr Martin said. He said he tried dousing the fire which was quickly engulfing the cabin.
READ MORE:
Meanwhile, Mr van der Burgt attempted to kick open the front door but it was locked and barricaded from the inside. He called 000 before checking through the cabin's windows where he saw a teenage girl inside.
The pair managed to break down the door and started crawling about a metre into the cabin but were forced back due to the thick toxic smoke and the increasing heat.
"We were both on the ground and I remember I looked over at 'van der' and we said 'we can't go any further, we're going to end up killing ourselves here'," Mr Martin said.
They went to the side of the cabin where a teenage girl had appeared at a small window.
Mr Fourie, who had alerted people in nearby cabins to evacuate as the flames were spreading, helped the two men pull the teenage girl to safety.
"She probably shouldn't have fit through the window but we got her out," Mr Martin said.
"The intensity of the fire and the thick black smoke was quite bad and for those reasons I'm glad we got her out. I think it was only a matter of minutes before that cabin was fully engulfed in flames."
Mr Martin said that during the blaze, he asked bystanders to help move the family caravan, which was just metres from the fire.
"There were about 10 or 15 bystanders who helped get rid of it," he said.
"Someone backed their car up and the annex and stuff was ripped off in an all mighty rush before it was driven away. The caravan was still popped up at that moment."
Despite the bystanders' efforts, Mr Martin's caravan was badly damaged and three cabins were burnt out.
"As soon as we realised there was a girl in there, we just had to do it," he said.
The heroes were invited to Government House in Melbourne on Thursday to accept an Australian Bravery Decoration, awarded last year.
Mr Martin will receive their Australian Bravery Decorations at Government House on Thursday
"I'm humbled (by the award) but it's something we felt that we needed to do," Mr Martin said.