Today it became clear that the 13-year-old girl could have died if it had not been for the brave actions of the men who had been working on the line close to her home when they spotted the fire.

With no thought for their own safety, Peterborough men Anthony Smith and David Challis, and colleague Graeme Thornton, from Stamford, fought to get the girl to safety after seeing flames in the windows of the house in Station Road, in the village of Essendine, near Stamford.

David (48,) of Crown Street, New England, said: "The whole window was flamed up, the curtains and nets were alight and smoke was bellowing out.

"By this time we realised that there was a girl in there as we could see her."

Anthony and Graeme launched the rescue mission by running to the front of the house and trying to kick the door down, while David called the fire service.

Anthony said: "We knocked on the door and her face came to the window in the door. She was panicking."

The door wouldn't budge, so Anthony picked up a piece of concrete and tried to smash a front window.

But the concrete only shattered the first pane of the double glazed windows, so he had to pick it out and hurled it through again, luckily smashing the second pane.

Anthony said: "We shouted and she came running to the window and climbed on to a chair, and then Graeme unlocked the window and I just lifted her out."

Graeme said: "We could hear the side window cracking and it blew out with the heat."

The trio took the injured teenager to their van, where David tried to help while receiving advice from the ambulance service on his mobile phone, until an air ambulance arrived to airlift her to hospital in Leicester.

David said: "She was burnt on her neck and face and her hair was singed. I tried to calm her down."

Anthony, of Belvoir Way, Peterborough, said: "I look back at it now and think that God was smiling down on her. I know she's burnt but she could have been a lot worse."

Graeme (46), of Redcott Mews, New Cross Road, Stamford, said: "It was just instinct, it was happening and we got involved. We are not heroes, we just did it, that's all."

Watch manager of white watch at Oakham fire station Tom Neal said: "I honestly think that if the railway workers had not attended there is a possibility there may have been a different outcome and the young lady may have suffered more serious injuries.

"They definitely put themselves in danger which is to be commended."

The girl, who is a pupil at Queen Eleanor Technology College in Stamford, has not been named.