TWO “superhero” road sweepers have been showered with praise after bravely tackling a blaze in an overturned car.

James Giddins and Keith O’Rourke were just minutes from home when they stumbled across the burning vehicle at the end of their nightshift at 4am on Tuesday.

Despite the late hour the two Bicester Sweepers employees were still quick-witted enough to use the water left in their vehicles to put out the blaze before the emergency services arrived at the A41/A4421 roundabout.

The next day they were praised by police and earned the admiration of their colleagues.

But Mr Giddins said it was all in a day’s work.

The 41-year-old said: “I used the jets from the sweeper to start putting out the fire and then the police turned up and had a look. After five minutes it had gone out. I asked the police if they wanted me to keep dousing it down until the fire service arrived and they said ‘yes’.

“My wife said the car could have blown up but I did not think about that, to be honest. Maybe the adrenaline just kicked in. If there had been someone in the car I wanted to get the fire out.”

The pair spent about 15 minutes at the scene before heading home as if nothing unusual had happened.

After getting home to Upper Heyford Mr Giddins went to sleep, not wanting to wake his wife Sarah, 36, or their sons Benjamin, 10, and Samuel, aged seven.

It was only when he returned to work later that day that he discovered PCs Chris Cochrane and Matt Acland from Bicester had emailed his Fringford-based employer about the pair’s actions.

Mr Giddins said: “I walked into work and everybody clapped.

“I did not realise what was going on and then everybody said ‘read this.’ “I thought ‘wow, this is great’, it was a really nice letter.

“I have shown my kids as well and they were well impressed.

“I am a superhero to Samuel.

“I have never come across anything like it before but I would do it again.”

The pair have also earned the admiration of their boss, Nick Herring, who said: “They went out of their way to stop and do it.

“We are a local company, we try to look after everybody else.

“We have had a couple of hedge fires and car fires but this is the first time we have had a letter thanking us. It has been drummed into our drivers to try to help out if possible.

“It is fantastic.”

Mr O’Rourke lives in Buckingham.