Crane hero who saved man from burning building dies
BBCThe quick-thinking crane operator who lifted a man to safety from a burning high-rise building in 2023 has died.
Glen Edwards was working at the Station Hill development in Reading, Berkshire, when the large fire broke out in November 2023 but was always keen to play down his heroics.
Edwards, from Egham, Surrey, was in his late 60s and was helped by charity Bucket List Wishes after he was diagnosed with spine cancer.
It said it was "heartbroken" to share news of his death but that it was "truly an honour and a real joy for us to know him", adding he would "always hold a special place in our hearts and remain a true hero".
He was praised by the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service and won a BBC Radio Berkshire Make a Difference award for his bravery in September 2024.
Talking to Good Morning Britain presenters Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid in the aftermath of the incident, Edwards was introduced as the "Bruce Willis of Reading".
He was earlier diagnosed with cancer in his tongue but that was "cleared up" with radiotherapy, he said in May 2025.
But tumours were later found in his spine and he was helped by Berkshire-based Bucket List Wishes.
That helped Edwards and his family furnish a new home with new carpets, flooring, blinds and kitchen essentials.
He said the charity's founder Gini Hackett, from Burghfield, was an "angel".
She told BBC Radio Berkshire Edwards was an "incredible man", who was "thrust" into the public eye after the fire.
"He was quite a private guy. But he was what I would call a genuine hero. He didn't think about himself at that moment and he rescued [the man]. That was incredible," she added.
Footage of the November 2023 fire captured by bystanders showed the moment Edwards, then 65, used the winch he was operating to move a cage towards the workman.
He had been working near the building manoeuvring a large concrete skip across the site.
Edwards extended the 90m (295ft) crane through the thick smoke and was able to estimate the size of the roof because he had been putting materials onto it the previous day.
"I could just about make [the man] out because he was standing right on the edge. He only had about 2 sq m (6.6 sq ft) that he was standing on before it all caught alight," he said at the time.
"I could hear all the crowds when I hoisted him up in the air.
"When I packed everything up and got the cage off and everything… it wasn't until I was coming down the crane I thought [about] what I had just done."
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) later said "hot work" - jobs that require open fires, flames or the application of heat - should be "designed out wherever possible".
Station Hill opened to tenants, which now include PepsiCo UK, last June.