Moment father drags burning air conditioning unit out of family home seconds before it explodes

By SHANNON MCGUIGAN, NEWS REPORTER Published: 19:22, 18 August 2026 | Updated: 19:24, 18 August 2026 This is the moment a father dragged a burning air conditioning unit out of the family home seconds before it burst into flames.  Gregory Lawless, 54, woke to a flicker of light from his bedroom door, and, behind it, an air-conditioning unit in flames at the top of the stairs.  The brave father, from Milton Keynes, quickly took action, dragging the flaming machine down the stairs into his driveway at around 2.50am on August 16.  As he yelled 'fire', small flickers of light could be seen on the ground as he dragged the unit away from his home, which later burst into flames.  And just seconds after he reached for a hose to douse the flames, the unit exploded to the shock of his wife Ainsley, 46, and their ten-year-old son, Jamison.  The recruitment director had 'instinctively' known it was a fire and the handle began to break as he dragged the burning machine through their home.  Of his bravery, Mr Lawless said he did what 'any parent or partner would do' to keep their loved ones safe.    'I saw the flicker of a flame, and I heard a beeping from the unit, and just ran as fast as I could to get the unit out of the house,' he said. 'I couldn't believe the timing, that it exploded moments after I got it into the drive. This is the moment a father dragged a burning air conditioning unit out of the family home seconds before it burst into flames Gregory Lawless, 54, (pictured with his wife Ainsley) woke to a flicker of light from his bedroom door, and, behind it, an air-conditioning unit in flames at the top of the stairs The brave father, from Milton Keynes, quickly took action, dragging the flaming machine down the stairs into his driveway at around 2.50am on August 16 The recruitment director had 'instinctively' known it was a fire and the handle began to break as he dragged the burning machine through their home 'I'm just really thankful that we're all safe and that there was no spread to the adjacent park. I was worried about that due to the alert only the day before'. Meanwhile, his partner Ainsley, who is also a microblading artist, said it was a 'miracle' no one had been harmed in the incident, and there was only soot damage.   'It was only afterwards that we felt the horrors of what could have been,' she said.  The fire brigade also informed her that if the compressor had exploded in the home, they would have 'lost the top floor of the house'. The mother also explained the family had purchased the air con unit from a 'reputable brand' for a 'couple hundred pounds' around five years ago.  She did not wish to disclose the brand's name.   'I woke up to Gregory shouting fire and running out into the hall,' she said, while adding it took only a 'couple of minutes' to explode. 'By some absolute miracle it didn't burn anything,' she said. 'There is some soot on the walls so we'll have to redecorate, but it's nothing. 'When it was very hot, we'd had our son on a blow-up bed with us and the air con unit by the window. 'If this had happened the night before, we wouldn't have been able to get it out, so who knows what would have happened. Ainsley said they regularly cleaned the filters and maintained the unit - putting the incident down to 'really bad luck'. She said they were in communication with the supplier of the aircon unit over the incident. Ainsley added: 'From our perspective, from now on we're going with fans and having our windows open until we can have someone fit proper aircon. 'We did everything right with that unit, but we don't want to risk it again.'