Two men who helped rescue a pair of teenage sisters from the third floor of a burning building in Galway last week have downplayed their actions and insist that they were just doing their best.The house fire occurred at a council-owned property in Slí Gheal, Knocknacarra, last Thursday evening and spread rapidly, trapping a 17-year-old girl and her 14-year-old sister on the top floor.Seyyid Ahmed Nahi (33) and Ibrahim Souna (34) were among the first to spot the blaze, and worked with a Polish man to try to get into the house through the front door.They were met by intense heat and thick plumes of smoke but shouted inside, calling out to anybody who might be trapped by the blaze.“There was a lot of smoke,” recalled Souna. “We shouted, asking if there was anybody in the house, and there was no response, no sign that there was somebody inside.”They left the crowds that had gathered at the front of the building and went around the back, where they broke down the door and tried to get inside.This time, they could hear screaming and knew that there was somebody trapped upstairs.“When myself, the Polish guy and Seyyid went around the back, we broke the door and got in. And that time, we heard people shouting, ‘Help!’ So, we took the action that we had to do,” said Souna, a social care worker.He initially tried to climb the drainpipe on the three-storey building but was unable to get near the girls.Ibrahim Souna Instead, the men pushed a large trampoline towards the house from the back garden.“It was not easy to move the trampoline there, so we tried our best to make it as close as possible to the wall,” said Souna.The girls had gathered at a small window and were struggling to breathe with the fire expanding behind them.“I tell this woman, you can jump first. First, just one. It was a big, big fire,” said Nahi.The 17-year-old jumped first.“She hurt herself in the fall and was crying that she couldn’t feel her legs,” said Souna. “We tried to give her as much support as we could, assuring her that everything was going to be fine, not to think about anything – just to try and calm her down.”The second girl’s jump was more successful, though she also sustained injuries in the fall. The eldest had surgery at University Hospital Galway on Friday, while her younger sister had an operation on Saturday.Seyyid Ahmed Nahi Once they were safely out of the house, the two teenagers were conscious but struggling to breathe due to smoke inhalation. Confusion ensued as one of them thought their younger siblings were still inside the burning building.This prompted the three men to try climbing upstairs again, but the other sister assured them that their brother and two sisters – aged between four and 15 – were already out of the building.“After that, we relaxed a little,” said Souna who, like Nahi, is from Algeria and has lived and worked in Ireland since 2022.When the emergency services arrived at the scene, the men directed cars to move from outside the property to make it easier for the fire service to access the site.The two Algerians dismissed any talk of heroics or bravery.“We just did our best. And fair play to the Polish guy and everybody else who was there,” said Souna.“When you see people shouting and screaming in a fire, you can’t just stand there and keep watching it. You try to do your best. Everyone tried to do their best that day, and thankfully the children survived.”