Dad, 20, insists he is ‘not a hero’ for diving into burning van and dragging three-year-old stepdaughter to security simply seconds earlier than blaze swallowed her automotive seat

A dad has said he is ‘not a hero’ for saving his three-year-old stepdaughter from his burning van – just seconds before her car seat was engulfed by flames. 

Window cleaner Harry Wilson, 20, of Burnley, Lancashire, grabbed her just in time, out of the flames coming from a smoking battery under her seat while they were driving in nearby town Bacup – but said he just acted on instinct. 

Of bravely saving his stepdaughter from a fire so strong, it smashed a nearby house’s window, he told MailOnline: ‘I just did what anyone else would have done. There wasn’t anything of being a hero about it. 

‘It was just, the van was on fire and there was a little girl in my passenger seat that needed to be out.’ 

But the little girl was in awe of her stepdad’s bravery. His partner, student midwife Ava Towers, 21 – not pictured, along with her daughter, for safeguarding reasons – told MailOnline her daughter called Mr Wilson a ‘superhero’ for rescuing her. 

Mr Wilson lost his father Chris when he was only two. Just two weeks before the fire, he used the inheritance money he had saved for nearly 20 years to buy the secondhand van and equipment for his new window cleaning business, which he had bought from his stepdad. 

His mother Sarah Wilson has set up a GoFundMe page to help him replace the vehicle – and the new work uniforms and equipment, his phone and his day’s wages, which he had left in the glovebox, that he lost in the blaze.  

Her son called her in tears from the roadside after the fire, she wrote on the page, saying, ‘I’ve lost everything, I’ve lost everything my dad has done for me’. 

Mr Wilson was absolutely devastated by losing everything he spent the inheritance money from his dad on: ‘Everything that I had left of him was on fire and there was nothing I could do.

‘There was no one there, really, to help until the fire brigade got there and by the time they got there, it was too late, everything had already been lost.’ 

He is still reeling from the sudden fire, which started under where his stepdaughter was sitting, on the passenger side of the cab in her car seat: ‘I’m still in a bit of shock, to be fair, I can’t process what’s gone on.’ 

On Thursday night, Mr Wilson had picked up his stepdaughter – not named for safeguarding reasons – from her grandparents’ house in Bacup, Lancashire, where she was being looked after while off from nursery with chickenpox. 

He said: ‘We were just cruising, listening to music. One minute, there was thick smoke coming out. Next minute, the cab’s filled so we pulled the handbrake. 

‘And I’ve jumped out the car, I’ve ran round to get her out. The second I got her, with about five seconds to spare, the whole under the seat set on fire.’ 

Only moments later, he said: ‘The whole cab was ablaze.’ 

Mr Wilson is at a loss now about what to do to recover his business: ‘For now, my stepdad’s going to take time out of his business to help drive me around my rounds. 

‘But other than that, I just don’t know, I’m not sure what’s going on at the moment. I’m just at a standstill with it all.’ 

His partner Ms Towers, who is studying to be a midwife, was on a training placement in Bolton, about a 40-minute drive away, when the fire started. 

Expecting the doctor to give her a ring, she answered a call from an unknown number – but it turned out to be her partner, calling from a stranger’s phone after his had been destroyed in the fire, telling her about the terrifying blaze. 

She said: ‘Obviously, I started panicking because I couldn’t really understand what he was saying because he was so worked up.’ 

She set off straight away, ringing her mother, who lives near where the fire happened, to ask if her mum could go down to check if they were alright. 

Her mother is a registered children’s nurse so she checked them out and was thankfully able to report the pair were alright: ‘She was alright, obviously Harry was really shaken up. 

‘My daughter just said, “There was a fire!” And then she called Harry a superhero for getting her out so it was really lovely.’ 

His stepdaughter’s comment meant a lot to him, Ms Towers said, after a very upsetting accident: ‘It helped him a lot at the time. He was really upset, he thought that it was his fault and stuff like that and when she said that, it really chilled him out.’ 

When Ms Towers arrived, the pair were being checked out by an ambulance crew. She asked some women who had seen the fire, one of whose phones Mr Wilson used to call his partner, what happened. 

They told her: ‘He literally jumped out, he got her out and then by the time he got her out, everything just went up straight away.

‘And obviously, in the process, it smashed somebody’s house window from the heat of it.’  

The 21-year-old then took her partner and daughter to Blackburn Hospital for monitoring on the paramedics’ advice, just in case they experienced any issues after inhaling smoke – but both, thankfully, got the all clear. 

With her partner having only bought his van two weeks prior, Ms Towers explained their first thoughts about what caused the fire: ‘Initially, we thought maybe it’s something to do with, we’ve been sold something dodgy.’  

But when they spoke to the fire brigade, they found out it was caused by a battery under her daughter’s seat, which first started smoking under her before the flames began: ‘It was put there to fuel the water tanks and everything like that. 

‘His stepdad uses them for his business, he’s had no issues. We’ve been told they’re a reliable thing, a lot of window cleaners use it.’ 

She explained: ‘It was a battery that was basically fuelling the things in the van so it was stored under one of the seats to keep it away from all the water, in case any water spilled on it, or anything like that, so there was no possibility of it getting damaged.’

But also, this was just the fire brigade’s best guess as to what happened, she said: ‘That’s what their impression is, that’s all they could gather from, obviously, what they’d seen and what they’d put out, they’ve just put down as it being a battery.’ 

Mr Wilson was very upset by the fire, she said: ‘He’s just really disheartened. We’re all trying to do everything we can to help him a bit. I got him a new phone because he didn’t have a phone or anything, just so he had some way of contacting people.’ 

She explained how she felt when she got the call: ‘Initially, it was just panic, I literally just got there as quickly as I could and then just ran to them both. 

‘But then since, I’ve just been more disheartened for him because obviously, I’ve watched his mental health deteriorate since it’s happened, just because of where the money came from.

‘She is the same age he was when he lost his dad and it’s just hit home for a him a bit, how close it was.’ 

Ms Towers added: ‘I think he’s just more bothered because that business was already quite well-established and set up by his stepdad. 

‘Because his stepdad handed the business down to Harry but obviously, he’s bought it and done it that way. But obviously, it was really successful as well. 

‘So, Harry is more panicked about, “How do I bring money to you now?” He just doesn’t know where to turn with it.’ 

It feels like a long road ahead, she said, to get the business back: ‘He’s trying to buy little bits that can possibly help him carry on with his business but up until he’s probably able to obviously afford a new van and things like that, you’re probably looking at way over a year.

‘Because obviously, it’s one of them, he got left a lot of money, you can’t just pull that money out of nowhere.’