A POLICEMAN who braved choking black smoke to save an unconscious man has been honoured for his courage.

Sergeant Ken Pullan, 46, was called to a fire in a flat at Allergate, Durham, in March, where a man was trapped inside.

He said: "I listened but could not hear any fire sirens, so I decided to act.

"I dropped to my knees and crawled in, feeling my way forward through the smoke.

"I searched the rooms and finally found a man slumped on his knees in the living room.

"He was unconscious and I dragged him about 20ft to get him clear of the building.

"By that time, the fire crews were just arriving."

The officer and the victim, a man in his early fifites, who lived alone, were taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.

Sgt Pullan, now a temporary inspector, was released after treatment but the man he rescued was detained overnight before he made a full recovery.

The blaze, which badly damaged the flat, is thought to have been caused by an unattended chip pan.

The father-of-two has been given a framed certificate from the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire.

He received one of the force's top bravery awards for pursuing an armed robber in east Durham in 1991, a chase that ended in a crash.

Three years earlier, he earned a Chief Constable's Commendation for helping quell a major disturbance in Darlington and, in 1993, was awarded a second commendation for pursuing a post office robber armed with a gun.