BREWERY worker Steve McCormack had just one thing to say to the part-time fireman who saved him when his foot was crushed in a grinding machine: thanks a lot!

Steve, 26, of Cotswold Meadow, Witney, told brave Arron Hyatt: "Thanks a lot for everything. This is a real head-rush - We will have to go out for a beer afterwards. You were my fall guy."

Steve's big toe was sliced off and he could have lost his whole leg in the accident but for retained firefighter Arron, who held him clear of lethal machinery for four hours.

Oxford Brookes student Arron, 21, of Moorland Road, Witney, told Steve: "It is good to see you on the road to recovery. It could have been any one of us in there with you, but it was me."

Steve, recovering in the John Radcliffe Hospital, described his ordeal: "I looked down and I could see my leg going down this hole. I thought it had snapped my leg off. Arron was fantastic." Arron, whose father and grandfather were also firefighters, only signed up to the brigade seven months ago.

Disaster struck when Steve's leg became trapped in the grain-mashing machine at Wychwood Brewery, off Church Green, Witney, while he carried out a routine cleaning operation last week. Arron clung on to Steve until he could be lifted free of the machinery and given emergency surgery.

Steve, a BMX biker, has been sedated with pain-killing drugs and was not able to describe the horrific accident until now.

He added: "I was very calm the whole way through it, which is amazing, because I would have thought if someone was trapped in machinery it would be agony - the worst thing possible."

Surgeons will amputate half his foot tomorrow because he has no feeling left.

Steve will have an artificial foot fitted so he can walk. But he cannot wait to get back on his bike as quickly as he can.

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