Firefighters who rescued nine people from a blaze on the 10th floor of a tower block have received bravery awards.

The four men fought their way through intense heat and smoke to rescue everyone safely when fire broke out in Andrew Reed House, Linstead Way, Southfields, in the early hours of August 12 last year.

Matt Renshaw, 33, crew manager of Paddington station, and Daniel Towle, 27, firefighter in Battersea station, received certificates for bravery on Tuesday Ryan Stocker, 29, a Battersea firefighter, also scooped an award for saving four people from the towerblock fire.

An award was collected on behalf of watch manager David Waterman who was working during the ceremony which took place in Battersea Fire Station, in Este Road.

Crew manager Renshaw and firefighter Stocker were in the first fire engine to arrive at the scene, and managed to save four people between them.

Within minutes of arriving Mr Renshaw helped two young boys to the ground and informed the crews that another two people and a dog were still trapped inside the 10th floor flat.

The two men then went up to rescue them and the dog.

Mr Waterman and Mr Towle received awards for rescuing five people from the blaze, including an elderly man.

Despite being up all night Mr Renshaw still managed to tie the knot to wife Sara Renshaw the following day in Surrey, and has now been married for almost 10 months.

He said: "I was shattered. It was a busy day. I felt like I only saw my wife for 10 minutes and was too busy to talk about it during the day."

Nigel Miles, fire borough commander for Wandsworth, said: "This serious fire was undoubtedly a major challenge but all of the fire crews involved worked incredibly hard, under hot and intensely smoky conditions to save the lives of nine people.

"Around 40 firefighters attended this fire and they all worked extremely well as a team to extinguish the fire and save the lives of the occupants.

"The fire officers and firefighters that are being awarded today thoroughly deserve to be recognised for the selfless courage and initiative they showed on that night last August."

Mr Towle said: "It's always nice, but at the end of the day we were just doing our job. You don't always expect to be awarded.

"It was getting well developed when we turned up, our actions saved lives that night."

Were you there that night? Contact Alexandra Rucki on 020 87226344 or email arucki@london.newsquest.co.uk