Crane operator nominated for award after fire

A bravery award nominated crane worker who lifted a man to safety from a burning high-rise building has said he was just doing his job.

A large fire broke out at the Station Hill development site in Reading last November, where Glen Edwards used a cage to rescue a workman who was surrounded by flames and thick smoke.

He has now been nominated in the bravery category at the BBC Radio Berkshire Make A Difference Awards.

But he said: "I never even thought about it. I think the adrenaline took me through it."

He described receiving the nomination as a "very nice thought".

At its peak, more than 50 firefighters were on the scene from fire stations across the county to deal with the large blaze.

Footage captured by bystanders showed the moment Mr Edwards, 65, used the winch he was operating to move a cage towards the workman.

He had been working near the building manoeuvring a large concrete skip across the site.

He heard an alarm and stopped what he was doing, before looking up and seeing the worker trapped on a corner of the building "waving his yellow vest about".

"Someone shouted over the radio that there’s a guy on level eight, and I said we’ll get the rescue cage on," he explained.

"So I got that on, started to go up, and as I was slewing around trying to assess what was going on I couldn’t really see much because the smoke was bellowing out everywhere."

Mr Edwards extended the 90m-high (295ft) crane through the thick smoke, and was able to estimate the size of the roof because he had been putting materials onto it the previous day.

He said: "I could just about make him out because he was standing right on the edge. He only had about 2 sqm (6.6 sqft) that he was standing on before it all caught light."

"I could hear all the crowds when I hoisted him up in the air," Mr Edwards recalled.

"When I packed everything up and got the cage off and everything… it wasn’t until I was coming down the crane I thought [about] what I had just done."

Steve Reynolds, who was working in a nearby building, said afterwards: "I saw a black cloud go up and a ball of flames happen and all of a sudden I could see there was a guy trapped on the corner.

"There were bits of glass falling off the side of the building and he was completely exposed up there.

"Then all of a sudden a crane came out from the left with a carriage on it and they lowered it down… and he gets in and they pull him away... it was pretty terrifying."

Another witness said: "Luckily the crane came in just in time... when he got inside the crane and the crane put him down everyone was clapping.

Following the rescue, the fire service said without Mr Edwards' actions they could have been "looking at an entirely different scenario".

Wayne Bowcock, chief fire officer at Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue, thanked him "for an incredibly skilful rescue under extremely difficult circumstances".

Mr Edwards has also received a special recognition award from his local authority, Runnymede Borough Council.

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