In the early hours of 7 July 1980, Robert Forbes saved his sister from certain death when an electrical fault set fire to the tent they shared behind their parents' house. Eleven-year-old Robert left the burning tent to alert his parents but when he heard his sister cry for help, without thinking of the danger to himself, he entered the tent in an attempt to pull her out of her sleeping bag and succeeded in rescuing the thirteen-year-old girl from the fire. The tent collapsed soon after their escape. Robert suffered second-degree burns to his hands and face, and his sister recovered from extensive third- degree burns.