A FIREFIGHTER from Peatmoor who risked his life rescuing a lorry driver from a catastrophic chemical explosion has been hailed a hero.

Nathan Thompson now lives in Australia and led the response team to a crash close to Charleville, in Queensland, unaware the up-turned lorry was carrying 50 tonnes of ammonium nitrate.

The mixture of chemical and diesel spilling from the lorry caused an explosion that was felt 30km away and Nathan’s colleagues who were following him to the scene were sure he must have been killed as they watched tonnes of chemicals go up in flames.

But Nathan managed to drag the driver, who suffered 35 per cent burns, to safety and last Friday the 34-year-old former Swindon Honda worker was awarded the Heroism Medal at the Pride Of Australia Awards alongside his colleagues Jake Sullivan, Clinten McCarthy and Peter Hackwood.

Nathan moved from Swindon in 2006 after meeting Aussie wife Aimee at the former Walkabout pub in Swindon during her gap year.

She was eight months pregnant with their second son when Nathan got the call to attend the burning truck on September 5, last year.

Nathan’s father Barry, 57, who lives in Swindon, told the Advertiser it was a miracle his son survived.

“At about the same time it happened Aimee thought someone was trying to break in because all the doors were going in the house,” he said.

“Then they thought it was an earthquake as all the windows were going. While Nathan was 150 metres away from the initial blast, she was home calling her mum because she thought someone was trying to break in.”

Barry visited the crash site a year on and was amazed by the destruction.

“They have had to divert the entire road because there is still an 80-tonne section of railway bridge hanging up in the air,” he said.

“When you are there you get a true sense of the scale of what happened. Where the road was removed there is a cement embankment split in half by the blast. That is where they were standing when the first explosion went off.

“There shouldn’t have been more than DNA left of them.

"When the fire chief arrived he cordoned the area off and said it would be a recovery operation, not a rescue mission, as it was impossible any of them could have survived.

“They weren’t going to send anyone in until it was light because of the risk. Nobody seems to have worked out how they survived.

"My lad was pushed underneath the vehicle in the initial blast, and they are all still suffering from hearing difficulties.”

The first sign of any survivors was the light of a torch appearing through the smoke, then it dawned on fire crews there was still life at the blast site.

“They had been treating the truck driver who was very severely injured,” said Barry. “Then they were hit by a second blast.

“They got out a torch and started walking up the highway. Everyone saw this light in the smoke, followed by four guys carrying the injured driver.

“If they had left it another minute there would have been nothing left of them. All they recovered from the truck was a chassis. Everything else was gone. It is such an outstanding sequence of events. I could not believe it when we heard the news.”

Nathan’s grandmother Maureen, 80, of Moredon, said she was bursting with pride at the achievement.

“He is still having side effects from his injuries now, because his ear drums were blasted,” she said.

“Nobody could believe it when they came out of the smoke because everything else was destroyed. We are all so proud of Nathan and what he has done.”

Swindon Advertiser:

Former Peatmoor volunteer firefighter Nathan Thompson and his family