A Selby builder was today hailed a hero after rescuing a mother and her toddler son from a blazing house.

Mark Foster, 31, sprang into action when a distraught neighbour rang late at night to say her lounge was on fire.

He jumped out of bed, pulled on a pair of shorts, trainers and a tracksuit top, and dashed across the road to the home of Kelly Tonks and her three-year-old son, Joshua.

As he opened the front door of the house in Pond Street, off Barlby Road, Selby, he was met by intense heat and thick black smoke.

Mark said: "There was an armchair well alight just behind the lounge door, and I could see through the window that the flames had already spread to the curtains and carpet. I managed to move the chair with the door and then got Kelly out of the house.

"I then bolted up the stairs where Joshua was fast asleep in bed. I chucked him over my shoulder and ran outside with him."

Mark, a self-employed builder, then went back into the terraced property to try to save the house.

He said: "I ripped down the curtains, which were well ablaze, and threw them outside. I then managed to pull the burning chair through the lounge and front doors into the garden.

"I burned my fingers and I've got quite a few blisters, but there was no way I was giving up."

Kelly then screamed that their German Shepherd puppy, Beckham, was still in the kitchen.

"I went back in for the dog but you couldn't breathe for the smoke. Thankfully the firefighters got him out safely," said Mark, who was back at work laying bricks today despite his blistered hands.

Kelly, 19, said: "We owe our lives to Mark - I will never be able to thank him enough."

Kelly's granddad, Norman Taylor, of Sycamore Road, Barlby, said: "You can replace wallpaper but you can't replace lives. Mark did a fantastic job."

Selby fire station sub officer Simon Gallagher said: "We can only commend Mark's actions.

"We don't advise anyone to enter property that is on fire, but what he did was very brave."

Updated: 11:31 Tuesday, August 21, 2001