Samantha helps families flee fire

From the archive, first published Sunday 29th Apr 2007.

A TEENAGER has been praised for helping ten people escape a burning building.

Samantha Cary, 16, of Victoria Road, Southend, was walking along York Road, Southend, on Friday when she saw smoke coming out of a building.

After calling 999, she went in and knocked on the doors of all the bedsits to warn people and helped one elderly woman out of the building. She then went straight back in to save the woman's cat.

FULL REPORT AND PICTURE IN MONDAY'S ECHO