A heroic Asda delivery driver is winning praises for rescuing a 7 week old baby from a burning house during his rounds.
Habeel Khan, 26, saw a smoke coming out from a house near Stapleford, Nottinghamshire and on further investigation he found a woman with 2 children shouting that her baby was stuck inside the house.
Khan who works at the Asda Home Shopping Centre in Bulwell, rushed into the house and helped rescue the 7 week old baby.
He said it was a normal day of work for him and he was out doing deliveries in the Stapleford area when he stopped and saw where the customer’s house was and there was a lot of smoke coming from there. He followed his instincts and went to check on the house and saw a lot of smoke and plenty of anxious people standing outside.
Habeel said, ‘I shouted ‘is everyone out of the house?’ and that’s when a woman with two young children shouted ‘my baby; my baby’s still in the house.’
He said, ‘I don’t think she had realised until then and then she ran back into the house and I went with her. She managed to pick up the baby from a room next to the kitchen where the fire had started, then we ran out.’
Habeel stayed for some more time with the family and helped to calm them down till the firefighters and paramedics arrived, and went back to delivering the rest of his deliveries.
He was recently named Colleagues’ Colleague of the Year at the Being Asda Awards 2019 for his heroic act.
He said: ‘I didn’t really think anything of it – I just thought I’d helped out, and had done a little good deed. I don’t think I have done anything heroic at all to be honest. Thankfully everyone was okay in the end and the family are back in the house.’
His colleagues shared their reaction to his deed, Claire Wilkes said: ‘Habeel doesn’t think he is a hero, but we certainly do – he’s amazing!’
Bernie Drummond added: ‘Habeel’s just great and everyone loves him here. He’s just our Habeel, our hero.’
Mr Khan’s manager Peter Smith said: ‘We know him as Smiler. He is always happy. He is always doing the right thing by the customer. He is an absolute asset to the team and a credit to the company.’
Asda’s senior vice president of operations Anthony Hemmerdinger said: ‘What Habeel did was remarkable and it’s not something we would recommend that our colleagues do, however it’s clear that in this instance his instinct kicked in and he did a remarkable job.’
What a brave and heroic act by Habeel Khan to jump into the fire and save a baby for a family he did not know, our faith in humanity is restored when we hear of acts of extraordinary kindness like these.