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Junior football ace Jacob Porteous snatched from blaze

Aug 9 2009 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

11 year old Jacob Porteous who was rescued from a house fire by firefighters

A JUNIOR football star is fighting for his life in hospital after being rescued from a house blaze.

Jacob Porteous, 11, was semi-conscious when firefighters pulled him from the smoke-filled terraced home in Thornaby, Teesside, shortly after 9am Friday.

Paramedics treated him at the scene before the youngster was taken by ambulance to Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital.

From there he was flown, with mum Deborah, 39, by his side, to a hospital in Hull for specialist treatment for smoke inhalation.

Yesterday, Jacob, who plays in midfield for Whinney Banks under-12s and who has been scouted by Boro, was moved back to James Cook where his condition was described as “critical”.

His shocked granddad David Powley said: “Deborah had just nipped over to Asda to get food for breakfast when somebody saw her in the centre and said ‘Your house is on fire!’

“One of the neighbours raised the alarm. The fire brigade were all here when I got here. There was smoke billowing all over the place.

“Jacob was still in the building. He had been asleep. They brought him out after about five minutes.

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