The Milkman Who Fought a Fire With 320 Pints of Milk

Most people, arriving at work to find a building on fire, would call 999 and wait. Steve Leech did call 999. Then he opened his van.

The Morning Everything Changed

On January 24, 2002, Leech - a 35-year-old milkman working his regular round in Redruth, Cornwall - spotted smoke billowing from a gift shop. The fire brigade was on its way, but the blaze was spreading fast toward the row of shops alongside it, and the occupied flats above were directly in its path. Leech had no fire extinguisher and no water supply to hand. He looked at the back of his delivery van, loaded with the morning's milk, and made a decision.

320 Pints, One Milkman

He kicked the door in and started pouring. Carton after carton, pint after pint - 320 pints of milk in total - Leech emptied his entire delivery load onto the flames. The tamper-proof lids slowed him down considerably. "I kicked the door in and started pouring milk everywhere," he later said. "It was hard work opening all those bottles as they have tamper-proof lids." He spent roughly ten minutes working through the smoke, dousing every part of the fire he could reach. By the time firefighters arrived, he had it under control.

Seven Shops and Eight Lives

Firefighters credited Leech with saving seven neighbouring shops and the lives of the eight people living in the flats directly above the row. Had the fire been left to spread for the minutes it would have taken the brigade to arrive and set up, the outcome would likely have been very different. A row of businesses that should have been ash was still standing. Leech, characteristically, loaded back up and finished the rest of his round with whatever milk he had left.

The Title He Earned

The National Dairymen's Association awarded Leech the title of Hero Milkman of the Millennium for his actions. He became a minor celebrity in the trade press and the story spread far beyond Cornwall. He later noted, with characteristic understatement, that explaining to his boss where 320 pints had gone was "even harder" than fighting the fire itself.