A Nottingham Asda delivery driver, who saved a seven-month old baby from a house fire, has been named a finalist in the Amplifon Awards For Brave Britons 2020.
Habeel Khan, 26, who ran into the smoked-filled house while on his delivery round has reached the finals of the Act Of Courage category in global-hearing specialist Amplifon’s search for ‘The Best of British’.
Habeel, nicknamed Smiler by his colleagues because he always puts on a happy face, said: “I was doing my deliveries in the Stapleford area and when I pulled up and looked over to where the customer’s house was. I saw loads of smoke just gushing out of a house.
“There were lots of people panicking outside.
“I shouted ‘Is everyone out of the house?’ and a woman with two young children shouted ‘My baby; my baby’s still in the house.’ I don’t think she had realised until then, and then she ran back into the house and I went with her.
“We managed to pick up the baby from a room next to the kitchen where the fire had started, then we ran out.”
Habeel, who is based at Asda’s Nottingham Home Shopping Centre, stayed with the family and helped to calm them down until the firefighters and paramedics arrived. He then calmly carried on with the rest of his deliveries.
Following the incident Habeel was named Colleagues’ Colleague of the Year at the Being Asda Awards.
One colleague said: “Habeel doesn’t think he is a hero, but we certainly do – he’s amazing!” Habeel’s just great and everyone loves him here. He’s just our Habeel, our hero. He always does the right thing for the customer.”
Asda’s senior vice president of operations Anthony Hemmerdinger said: “What Habeel did was remarkable although 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.”
Habeel has been invited to the virtual awards presentation on Tuesday, October 13, when Radio 5 Live breakfast presenter Rachel Burden will host the event, and Falklands War hero Simon Weston will be guest of honour.