A taxi driver in Dublin is being hailed a hero after he saved a family from a burning building on Sunday morning.
Derek Malone was dropping a fare to Knocksedan in Dublin at 4:30am, when noticed smoke coming from a house.
After spotting a woman and young child at the front door, Derek jumped to help and tried to push the door open with his shoulder.
Speaking on the Alison Curtis Show earlier, Derek said that he couldn't get the door open and instructed the woman and child to climb out a window.
"I told the mother ‘get to the window’, and she opened [it], and she passed the child out the window," he explained.
“The little child, I’ve never seen somebody’s face - she didn’t know what to do. She was I’d say 10 or 11; her name was Lucy."
Tune into @AlisonTodayFM now to hear the story behind this rescue by taxi driver Derek Malone #Dublin pic.twitter.com/2Hi3rcxqRw
— Dublin Fire Brigade (@DubFireBrigade) December 6, 2016
"And then I had to get the mother out, and it’s hard getting an adult out of a window."
Praising the taxi driver for his heroic work, Tim Arnold from Hailo Ireland plans to nominate Derek for a National Bravery Award as well as give him a €500 bonus for Christmas.
And in a wonderful gesture, Derek has said that he will donate his bonus to little Lucy.
“I didn’t sleep all day yesterday,” he added.
“I was awake for 48 hours, I couldn’t sleep at all. I had an awful cough.
"But I’d say the family had more of a cough than me."
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