THESE pet lizards were the reason Martin Brown ended up saving his neighbours from an arson attack in the middle of the night.
When the have-a-go-hero realised his building was on fire, it brought back bad memories – he lost his mother six years ago in a house fire – and he instantly fought to save his wife, his pregnant neighbour, and his pets from the blaze caused by arsonists setting mattresses alight.
The 24-year-old, of Wordsworth Court in Melbourne, awoke to find the flat unusually hot at 2.30am on Saturday.
He thought his lizard tank must be overheating and immediately feared for his “babies”.
“When I put my hand to the wall, I realised the heat was coming through it, and knew there must be a fire outside,” said Martin, who works for a Perspex company in Springfield.
He then roused his wife Holly and waded through the smoke in a bid to save his pregnant next door neighbour Kay Wells and her partner John Bellamy.
“I ran to next door and started kicking at it to wake my neighbour up,” he said.
“He must have thought I was trying to break in.”
Martin then filled one of his empty lizard tanks with water and began to douse the flames.
“I was just trying to do what any good neighbour, or citizen would try and do,” he said.
Three fire crews from Chelmsford and Baddow soon arrived to tackle the blaze and put it out in under an hour.
They discovered three mattresses which had been left in a stairwell had been set alight, with the blaze spreading up to the first floor.
Expectant mum Kay, a 28-year-old pre-school teacher, was taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, but was later given the all-clear.
Her partner John, a 36-year-old agency worker, said: “We just thought all the noise was someone shouting in the street, so we went back to sleep.
“But then we heard Martin pounding on the door, and when we got out he was trying to put out the flames.
“I was really worried for Kay and we had a lucky escape, thanks to Martin.”
“I asked Chelmer Housing Partnership to move the mattresses because I was worried someone would set them on fire, but no one came.”
There was a double-whammy for Martin when he received medical treatment.
“I’ve been told I’ve got ADRS, a disease where the smoke inhalation has aggravated my asthma,” he said. “I’m in a lot of discomfort and I’ve been told I have to go to hospital if my breathing gets any worse.”
His wife Holly added: “It’s a nightmare. We’re all coughing black stuff. The place smells, all the wiring was on fire so we have no electricity.
“We want to leave this area. All our neighbours are moving. We are getting terrorised.
“There is no CCTV, and no communal alarm system.
“Something needs to be done to stop this happening again.
“I’m afraid. Every night I have to make sure I know where my shoes and coat are in case it happens again.”