A 91-YEAR-OLD blind man saved the day after fire broke out in his cooker - by picking it up and hurling it out of the front door.

Quick-thinking John Newell had just returned home after a day out with friends and starting cooking his dinner.

He switched on his portable Tefal cooker and was looking in the fridge when he heard a massive bang.

Smoke was pouring out of the blazing cooker so Mr Newell staggered to the front door of his house in Byron Road, Rustington, and opened it to let the fumes out.

Mr Newell, a retired bricklayer, said: "I heard this terrific explosion and I jumped up and realised the cooker was on fire and thought 'The whole place will go up'.

"I threw the cooker in the sink first of all but it was still burning. In the sink there is a plastic bowl but that caught light as well and started melting. I was very worried because there is a lady who lives above me and I didn't want anything to happen to her."

Mr Newell, who lives alone but is cared for by his daughter Pam, decided to pick up the cooker and hurled it out of the door and into the front garden.

He added: "It did not seem particularly heavy at the time. I still have not checked the cooker to see how badly damaged it is. I just did not want my home wrecked so I had to do something. I suppose I did do quite well especially as I could not see what was happening." Mr Newell was not injured but he did singe his hair as he tried to quell the flaming cooker.

Littlehampton firefighters said the house was not damaged in the blaze and Mr Newell had helped to ventilate the property.

Station officer Trevor Worsfold, based at Littlehampton, said: "I think Mr Newell did very well. I praise him for his actions. This incident would have shaken anyone up but when you consider this man is 91 he has done fantastically."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.