It was already far from a typical working day for Katie Piper. The activist and TV presenter was working as a volunteer police officer as part of her documentary, Famous and Fighting Crime, alongside the likes of Jamie Laing and Penny Lancaster.

And then she came upon a burning block of flats in Peterborough.

Naturally, Piper’s fight-or-flight response (also known as the acute stress response) was triggered. However, she forced herself to ignore the inner voice telling her to run, and instead decided to stay and help deal with the threat.

Speaking to The Mirror, Piper explained: “I had to go against every ounce of my body which was telling me to run, then it just hits you, there are children in there, people are asleep, we have to go in.

“I thought, ‘these people are going to get badly burned if we don’t help them’, you run the numbers in your head and realise if we don’t go in, people could be killed or have their lives changed for ever.”

She added: “Me and my boss had to go in because there was no other choice. People were asleep, children were asleep, disabled people were asleep…

“I vowed I would never put myself in danger again and here I am.”

Katie Piper recalls frightening moment she rescued children from burning building