HEROIC brothers Dennis and Gordon Galley have bath saved a person's life this month, after they played vital roles in two dramatic rescues.

Fifty-two-year-old Dennis broke down the door of a blazing house on Upper Aughton Road on Friday night, battling intense heat, smoke and flames to drag unconscious Mark O'Byrne from the fire.

Mr Galley saw the fire as he left the Up Steps pub and heard young people shouting that a man was trapped in the burning flat.

Remembering rescue training he received while working off-shore seven years ago, he kicked in the door, waited for the backdraft to pass and crawled on the floor to find 34-year-old Mark O'Byrne in the lounge.

Dennis, of Duke Street, said: "I was walking the dog home from the pub when I heard these kids screaming that someone was trapped. I ran back, left the dog and asked the landlady of the Up Steps to call the Fire Service, then I went back and kicked the door in. Because I've had a lot of training I knew to keep down low, wait for the backdraft to pass and try to pull him out. That's really all I did."

Mark, who has burns over 70 per cent of his body, was lying on the floor and says the last thing he can remember is falling asleep an the sofa. He also suffered smoke inhalation but is now having injuries to his hands, face and arms treated by a specialist in Southport District General Hospital.

The incident has caused friends to nickname Dennis and his younger brother Gordon Galley 'Batman and Robin', since Gordon also came to someone's rescue three weeks ago - this time it was a floundering fisherman.

The man was in a small rubber dinghy and the outboard motor had broken down, two and a half miles off Southport's coastline. He had apparently been paddling for more than two hours before he was spotted by Gardon and a friend returning from a fishing trip 14 miles off shore.

Gordan, of Cambridge Road, said: "We were the only people out there and you couldn't see land. This guy had no way of contacting anyone else and I don't think he appreciated the danger he was facing - he just looked at us and shouted 'Which way is Ainsdale?"'

The incident was reported to the Coast Guard where it was logged as a life-saving rescue.