Mark McGlynn was the last person to see tragic father-of-five, Arthur McElhill, alive - he was hunkered down by the windowsill and stared lifelessly as rescuers tried in vain to reach him, his partner Lorraine McGovern and their five children.

Mr McGlynn was among the first on the scene of the Lammy Crescent fire. He and his brother, John, a window cleaner grabbed ladders from their front garden and raced over to the house barefoot and wearing only their boxer shorts.

They frantically tried to gain access to the house through an upstairs window which had been smashed by one of its occupants. But the pair were forced to retreat because of the ferocity of the flames and intensity of the heat.

Mark described how he had shouted and at one stage attracted Mr McElhill's attention. He said he held the victim's gaze for a few seconds but Mr McElhill turned away.

"I had just been alerted to it yesterday morning by my brother, at five o'clock in the morning, ringing for the fire brigade. And it was myself and my brother that went across the park in our bare feet and nothing else on except our boxing shorts.

"We put the ladders up to the window and tried our best to rescue the people inside the house.

"The ferocity of the fire was far too immense. I never saw flames like it. It wasn't just smouldering or a normal fire, it was just ferocious.

"It was uncontrollable," he told the Stephen Nolan Show.

He added: "I climbed up the ladder and was trying to get into the first floor. I saw one of the occupants of the house.

"I tried to shout, roar and ask for anybody to be passed out, for himself to get out. But he was just too overcome with the shock of the whole scene or he didn't want to leave his family.

"He wouldn't get on the ladder for me and there was no way I could get into the house. The flames were just beating past my head. I had to back off.

"He was actually hunkered down to the sill level height in the bedroom.

"He didn't speak. When I shouted and banged the ladders he looked round for about three or four seconds and then looked back into the room. I would say it was just pure strain, the man was suffering from inhalation of smoke. He was too far through, he just stared out for a long three or four seconds. We shouted and shouted but there was just nothing."

He said the painful memories of that fateful night will never leave him.

But the desperate screams from Ms McGovern will also live with him.

Poignantly, Mr McGlynn said he didn't hear any noise from the five children.

"I didn't get too much sleep last night. It was a very, very sad thing there to witness.

"It was so quick and so intense it was unbelievable."

Mr McGlynn has played down his heroism and claimed anyone would have acted the same way.

"I didn't know the family personally but it was one of them things. My brother is a window cleaner and he had the ladders in the front garden. We just grabbed them and ran for the house."