A FOUR-WEEK-OLD baby was saved by firefighters after his desperate mum drove to the fire station after he stopped breathing.

Panicked mum, Francesca Lowe, was on her way to the supermarket when baby Thomas, aged four weeks, turned blue and went limp in his car seat

She was with her mother Jenny Graham, who was driving, and her daughter Olivia, aged five, on Saturday morning when she realised her new-born son was not breathing.

The crew at Leigh fire station were in the middle of a training exercise on the yard, when the car pulled in and they sprang in to action and gave baby Thomas oxygen.

Miss Lowe, aged 40, from Leigh said: "It was absolutely terrifying. I just thought the worst at first. Then I thought no he can't die he just can't.

"I just kept telling myself not to panic, but where do you go in Leigh with a baby who isn't breathing, we don't have an A&E. That's when I thought to go to the fire station as we were so close to it.

"The fire crew were absolutely amazing, they were so compassionate and understanding.

"I think we forget that they are dads and grandads themselves and that's how they treated Thomas, just as they would their own.

"They didn't just save Thomas's life that day, they saved us all."

After fire crews gave oxygen to Thomas, an ambulance was called which took him to Wigan Infirmary where he was checked over and given the all clear.

in an ambulance to check him over.

Watch manager Matt Keogh said his team were taken aback at first before rushing to help little Thomas who was born six weeks premature.

He said: "We are used to dealing with all sorts of different emergencies away from the station but it was strange for one to arrive at the station.

"The lads kicked into gear straight away and we quickly took little Thomas out of the car, into the station and onto one of the vehicles where we store our medical equipment.

"Basically at some point during that process whatever had been potentially lodged in his airway was dislodged and we didn't actually have to do much more than that, it was either the sudden cold or the quick movement that did it."

Mr Keogh said the family were naturally very distressed.

He added: "It was good because we had 12 lads on the yard so there was plenty of people to help calm them down, obviously mum was very relieved afterwards. We actually spring scenarios like this on the lads sometimes but it is a bit different when it happens for real, but they were all superb."