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Soldier is lifesaver hero

Faye Adams
28/12/2005

CORPORAL David Smith has been hailed a hero after saving the life of a young Danish soldier.

The dad-of-three from Dukinfield was given a commendation for his quick reactions when a man he knows only as Private Neilson accidentally set himself alight.

The incident took place while David, who is in the Royal Engineers, was stationed at an army base in Basra, Iraq.

He had been training junior recruits when two Danish soldiers who had been building a fire had an accident.

"I heard a bang and one of them started screaming," said the 35 year old.

"I ran towards him and saw that his arms, legs and face were all burnt.

"The nylon shirt he was wearing was stuck to him. He was trying to rip it off, taking the skin off his hands.

"The skin from his legs was coming off - it looked like he was wearing stockings."

The man's colleague froze in terror but quick-thinking David doused his burns in wet clothes.

"We got him into the tank but we could barely touch him, his skin was so fragile it kept coming off," he said.

"He was screaming and shaking and had obviously gone into shock."

David and his trainees drove the young Danish man, who had suffered second degree burns, to the camp hospital.

Three days later he was flown to a burns unit in Copenhagen and is now recovering from his ordeal.

Corporal Smith has been told that if it were not for his intervention the man would not have survived.

But life-saving is nothing new to the modest soldier who in 2003 saved the life of a teenage girl.

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