A hero taxi driver who ran into a burning café to save a woman and her dog says he can’t believe he is still alive. Amir Hamadamin, from Newport, was driving back home after dropping off a passenger in Bath when he spotted the burning Tollgate tea rooms on the A46 in Dyrham in the early hours of Sunday, March 27.
“It was 2am and I saw in the corner of my eye that the flames had reached the roof,” the father-of-two told WalesOnline. “I had driven past but I thought there was no way that the flames were a fire in the garden at that time. I reversed and started beeping and beeping my horn, but I got nothing - I thought if anyone was in there that they were dead.”
Amir, who has worked for Dragon Taxis in Newport for seven years, says he quickly rang the fire service before attempting to break into the front of the building when he heard a dog barking from upstairs. He says when he went to the back of the building he “somehow found the strength” to break through a gate and make his way through a glass door, before smoke raced out of the building and covered him.
