True hero

On Tuesday morning, a lorry caught fire in the Brynglas Tunnels on the M4 at Newport. It caused hours of traffic jams and disruption as the tunnel had to be closed.

Meet Ashley Hall.

That's him up there.

He was driving behind the lorry as it became engulfed in flames. The lorry driver had stopped and got out but was in severe shock and attempted to get back in his truck. Ashley stopped his car and ordered the lorry driver to get in before driving out of the tunnel, seconds before the truck exploded.

His actions most definitely saved the lorry driver's life.

I had to drive through the tunnel today on my way back from Herefordshire. There is a 30 mile an hour speed limit in place in the tunnel (50 leading to it). The traffic jams to get in was absolutely horrendous.

Know why?

Because everyone was slowing down to look at the damage.

Clever.

The tarmac in the tunnel melted so they have done a temporary resurface until they can get in and finish the job properly. The rest of the damage is incredible, though.

There is serious damage to the roof of the tunnel with the lights knocked out for part of the way and you can see the smoke damage all over the place. It was downright eerie to drive through it.

When I was living in LA, I came home to visit my mom in Newport at Christmas. One Sunday lunch time, we were in the kitchen when we noticed thick black smoke coming from a few blocks away. We decided to go out and investigate and while we were walking towards the focus, there were four large explosions. Of course, I lived in LA and this wasn't long after 9/11... Mom told me to get up from behind the car I was using as a shield as it was obviously tyres exploding...

We made our way to the local bakery where a truck was ablaze. The fire quickly spread and burnt down a large part of the adjacent buildings.

It was one of the scariest things I had ever witnessed. This was out in the open so I can only imagine how bad it must have been in the tunnel...

The fire brigade were there for days, damping down. Then there was a fire at the aluminium factory a few days later...

What a Christmas for those men. We all took them chocolates and cakes to cheer them up.

The cause of the tunnel fire is under investigation.

The bakery fire?

Arson.

The kid later burned down the local school too. We had a fun evening watching that burn with the neighbours too...