Two men who helped rescue a pair of teenage sisters from the third floor of a burning building in Galway last week have downplayed their heroics and insist that they were just doing their best.

The house fire occurred at a council-owned property in Knocknacarra last Thursday evening and spread rapidly, trapping a 17-year-old girl and her 14-year-old sister on the top floor.

Seyyid Ahmed Nahi, 33, and Ibrahim Souna, 34, were among the first to spot the blaze, and quickly teamed up with a Polish man in an effort to gain entry to the house through the front door.

They were met by intense heat and thick plumes of smoke but shouted inside, calling out to anybody who might be trapped by the blaze.

“There was a lot of smoke,” recalled Ibrahim. “We shouted, asking if there was anybody in the house, and there was no response, no sign that there was somebody inside.”

Rather than leaving at that, however, they left the crowds that had gathered at the front of the building and went around the back, where they broke down the door and tried to get inside.

This time, they could hear screaming and knew that there was somebody trapped upstairs.

“When myself, the Polish guy, and Seyyid went around the back, we broke the door and got in. And that time, we heard people shouting, ‘Help!’ So, we took the action that we had to do,” said Ibrahim.

He initially tried to climb the drainpipe on the three-storey building in a desperate attempt to reach the two girls, but couldn’t manage to get near.

Instead, the three men began pushing a large trampoline towards the house from the back garden, struggling to move other items out of the way.

“It was not easy to move the trampoline there, so we tried our best to make it as close as possible to the wall,” said the social care worker.

The girls had gathered at a small window and were struggling to breathe with the fire expanding behind them.

“I tell this woman, you can jump first. First, just one. It was a big, big fire,” said Seyyid.

The 17-year-old jumped first, taking with her some sentimental items belonging to her baby brother, who had died tragically nearly five years ago.

“She was screaming,” recalled Ibrahim. “She hurt herself in the fall and was crying that she couldn’t feel her legs. We tried to give her as much support as we could, assuring her that everything was going to be fine, not to think about anything – just to try and calm her down.”

The second girl’s jump was more successful, though she also sustained injuries in the fall.

The eldest had surgery at University Hospital Galway (UHG) on Friday, while the 14-year-old underwent an operation the following day.

If there hadn’t been a trampoline in the garden, it’s unlikely that either of the girls would have made it out of the building alive, according to Ibrahim. “It was very, very high, you see? There was no chance that somebody could have survived that fall without a trampoline.”

Once they were safely out of the house, the two teenagers were conscious but struggling to breathe due to smoke inhalation.

Confusion ensued as one of them thought their younger siblings were still inside the burning building.

This prompted the three men to try climbing upstairs again, but the other sister assured them that their brother and two sisters – aged between four and 15 – were already out of the building.

“After that, we relaxed a little,” said Ibrahim, who, like Seyyid, is from Algeria and has lived and worked in Ireland since 2022.

They had decided against moving the 17-year-old because they believed she had sustained a spinal injury. However, with the blaze threatening the area around the house, they had to evacuate her further away.

When the emergency services arrived at the scene, Ibrahim and Seyyid directed cars to move from outside the property to make it easier for the fire service to access the site.

Despite the two girls owing their lives to the actions of the three men, the two Algerians dismissed any talk of heroics or bravery.

“We just did our best. And fair play to the Polish guy and everybody else who was there,” said Ibrahim.

“When you see people shouting and screaming in a fire, you can’t just stand there and keep watching it. You try to do your best.

"Everyone tried to do their best that day, and thankfully the children survived.”