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Lora braves the heat

By DORINE NARAYAN
Thursday, June 11, 2009

How many of us will jump into the roaring flames of a fire to save someone we hardly know?

It's a question many of us will back away from. Not this bold and brave young lady. Lora Bulouvou Tiko, 28, risked her life to save a sickly and paralysed 80-year-old man from burning to death five years ago.

It was a horrendous and frightening night, recalls Lora. 

"It was a frightening experience for me and I was really scared," she says.

"There was fire everywhere and people were screaming from outside but I knew I had to fight it somehow.

"I had only seen such things in movies and it was hard for me to believe that I was the one in the real-life situation."

She was alone taking care of former soldier Peter Fong for one night at his Laucala Bay home in February, 2004.

"My mum used to be his caretaker but that night, she went to the village and it was my responsibility to look after him," she said.

Lora was awakened by the heat of the flames at around 2am and it took her a while to realise what was happening.

"There were three bedrooms on the top floor of the house and the fire had started from the middle room," she says.

"I was on one side and the old man was on the other side. The first thing I did was to open the windows of my room because the fire started coming in.

"It was a hot night and the electric fan that was on in the middle room caused the explosion I believe."

Lora could have easily escaped by jumping out of the window but she did not.

"It was the old man I was thinking about the whole time and how to save him," she says.

"I had to cross the middle room to reach him and I did even though it was burning.

"My T-shirt was on fire by the time I slammed the door of his room. He was sitting on his bed and coughing.

"He looked at me and said for me to go outside without him."

Lora's heart filled with compassion and more respect for the man when she heard those words.

She carried him to the back door of the flat.

"I couldn't open the front sliding door so I had to use the back entrance. I don't really know how but I managed to make it with the old man."

There were fire extinguishers in the house but it was too late and there was no time for that," she said after going through the 30 minutes of tragedy.

The house was eventually completely burnt.

The mother of one-year-old baby girl says she will never forget the incident and saving an elderly man is her pride.

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