Heroic home shopping driver Habeel helps rescue baby from house fire

Our brilliant home shopping driver Habeel Khan didn't hesitate when he saw smoke coming from a house during his rounds – he stopped to help and when the shocked mother told him her baby still inside he dashed into the home with her to rescue the seven-week-old.

Habeel, who works at our Nottingham Home Shopping Centre, said: "It was a just a normal day at work for me. 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.

"My natural instinct was to just run across to the house. I could see loads of smoke and lots of people panicking outside.

"I shouted 'is everyone out of the house?' and that's when 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.

"She managed to pick up the baby from a room next to the kitchen where the fire had started, then we ran out."

Habeel stayed with the family and helped to calm them down until the firefighters and paramedics arrived, before calmly carrying on with the rest of his deliveries.

Habeel, who's 26, has been praised for his actions and was named Colleagues' Colleague of the Year at the Being Asda Awards.

He said: "I didn't really think anything of it – I just thought I'd helped out, and had done a little good deed. I don't think I have done anything heroic at all to be honest. Thanfully everyone was ok in the end and the family are back in the house."

Habeel's colleagues at our Nottingham Home Shopping Centre certainly think his actions were special.

Claire Wilkes said: "Habeel doesn't think he is a hero, but we certainly do – he's amazing!" and Bernie Drummond added: "Habeel's just great and everyone loves him here. He's just our Habeel, our hero."

Habeel's manager Peter Smith said: "We know him as Smiler. He is always happy. He is always doing the right thing by the customer. He is an absolute asset to the team and a credit to the company."

Asda's senior vice president of operations Anthony Hemmerdinger praised Habeel for his heroic actions. He said: "What Habeel did was remarkable and 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."