Two boys are to be honoured as heroes for rescuing an elderly man from a house fire.

Wigton pair Cian Fakes and Cohen French, both aged 11, have been credited with saving the life of 83-year-old Edward Telford after alerting both him and the fire brigade to a blaze that had engulfed his bungalow.

Cian and Cohen, Thomlinson Junior School year six pupils and Wigton under 11 cricket team members were on their way to cricket practice at 6.30pm on Thursday, when they noticed an unusual sight.

“We saw all this thick black smoke,” Cian said.

“We thought there might be a problem so we thought we should go and see if we could help,” said Cohen.

“At that point we weren’t scared, we just wanted to help.”

Arriving at the Lowmoor Road bungalow, the pair discovered much of the back garden was alight.

“We knocked on the front door to let anyone inside know there was a fire,” Cian continued.

Edward, who was dozing at the time, was awoken by the two boys and came to the door.

“He didn’t believe there was a fire at first. He thought we were joking,” Cohen said.

“Then we told him to come and look. He opened up the garage, and it was all on fire.”

Cian described how the draught of air that rushed into the garage upon Edward opening the door excited the flames and caused the windows to smash.

“By then, we were a bit scared,” he said.

Edward moved to tackle the fire himself, but the two boys persuaded him to move away.

“We thought it was too dangerous,” Cohen said.

Once the three had moved away from the burning bungalow, Edward asked the two boys for help to phone the fire brigade.

“His mobile phone wasn’t working, so I used my phone to call 999,” said Cian.

“Then he told them what was happening, and the fire engines came straight round.”

Police and two fire crews - one from Wigton, another from Aspatria - rushed to the scene and immediately set about tackling the fire.

A spokesman for the fire service explained that the “fire involved bushes, trees, fencing and the shed, which had spread into the garage, roof and the loft space of the bungalow.”

It took firefighters more than three-and-a-half hours to bring the extensive blaze under control.

However, without Cian and Cohen’s swift action to alert emergency services and Mr Telford to the unfolding drama, the fire could have been much more devastating.

Cohen’s dad Mark French said he and Cohen’s mum Helen “are two really proud parents”.

Emma Fakes, Cian’s mum, explained that the two boys have since demonstrated their care and concern yet again, visiting Edward on Friday to check on him.

“He told them that they had saved his life. He explained that he had been dozing in his chair at the time.

“It was Cian and Cohen who woke him up, so if and they hadn’t done that something awful could have happened.”

Also eager to recognise the two boys’ quick thinking and heroism are Cumbria Police and the county’s fire service.

Fire crew manager Alisdair Guthrie paid the pair a visit at school in assembly on Friday to congratulate them personally, and Thomlinson Juniors headteacher Brenda Fyrth presented the pair with a special commendation certificate.

And this coming Friday, Cian and Cohen will receive a Community Hero Award in recognition of their admirable actions, along with a certificate from the fire service.

“We do feel proud,” said Cian.

A fire service spokesman confirmed that investigations are ongoing to establish the cause of Thursday’s fire.