Fire hero up for bravery award

A Hamilton man who saved a teenage boy after a shipping container exploded in flames yesterday is being considered for a bravery award.

Fourteen-year-old Ben Cleaver is a serious condition with burns to 65 per cent of his body in Auckland's Middlemore Hospital specialist burns unit this morning after being airlifted from Waikato Hospital.

Ben, his 11-year-old brother Troy and two friends Kale Hoggart, 15, and Jack Pavich, 14, were playing in the container in the garden of a house in Rimu Street during a Fraser High School teacher-only day yesterday morning, The Waikato Times reported.

Waikato fire safety officer Ross Fleet said the boys then started "mucking around with a fuel container from the lawnmower".

"One of them has been in the process of emptying the fuel contents into some sort of cup, and sometime after that he has lit a cigarette and he has burst into flames, and the furnishings around him have also caught fire."

Kale, Jack and Troy managed to escape the inferno.

However, Ben was temporarily trapped in the container and engulfed in flames.

Next door neighbour Paul Temple said he was outside on a couch when he heard a commotion.

"A young boy raced around and said his brother was on fire," he said.

"I ran round and found him still in the container so dragged him clear and began pouring water on his injuries until ambulance officers arrived."

Emergency services, which arrived about 11am to find the container blazing, praised Mr Temple's actions.

Hamilton police said they were looking at acknowledging what he did.

Ben's engineer father Kevin Cleaver said the container stored beds and household products.

- NZPA