Colac’s Peter Lloyd extinguished a fire in an illuminated sign at BP on Murray Street.
A COLAC man followed his “gut instinct” when he rushed to put out a fire at a Colac petrol station.
Peter Lloyd has a history of heroic acts thanks to that instinct.
Mr Lloyd was at the Central Hotel watching a band play when he saw the fire start in an illuminated car wash sign at BP in Murray Street.
“People started running everywhere, so I bolted across the road and the young service station attendant was trying to shut down things,” he said.
“I asked for the keys to the fire box, I ended up going out to the fire box, got the fire extinguisher and put it out.”
Friday night’s fire was not the first time Mr Lloyd had helped out in an emergency.
He received a bravery award in 2004 for saving a man from a burning van on the Princes Highway at Little River after a crash which killed two others.
Mr Lloyd also tried to save a man who died from a carbon dioxide leak in the cellar of the Birregurra Royal Mail Hotel in 2010.
Steve Johnstone of Melbourne, who witnessed the fire on Friday night, told the Colac Herald Mr Lloyd’s actions were “incredible”.
“He’s just done a marvellous job, he come running across the road,” he said.
“He had it all out before the fire brigade got there.”
Mr Lloyd said he was “just a community person helping out.”
“I didn’t really think about it at the time,” he said.
Colac CFA brigade lieutenant Jack Horner said firefighters closed the service station for about an hour to ensure it was safe.
“We had to wait for the power to be offloaded to the sign and then we extinguished it to make it safe,” he said.
Mr Horner said about 15 firefighters attended the incident at 11.30pm.
“It destroyed the sign, but didn’t really hurt anyone,” he said.
Mr Horner said firefighters couldn’t determine the fire’s cause.
“A lot of the time they fill up with birds’ nests and get a bit hot,” he said.
“Probably a good reminder for people who do have illuminated signs to keep them maintained and checked regularly.”
