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Brave British man kicks down doors, helps families to safety during Typhoon Haiyan

A British man is being hailed a hero for rescuing families trapped in a hotel during the deadly Typhoon Haiyan.

Jonathan Fitzpatrick Skyped with his mother when Typhoon Haiyan struck.

The 23-year-old electrical engineer from Walsall, England, and his four work colleagues had been staying at the Ormoc Villa Hotel in the city of Ormoc since last month for work.

He was able to contact his family just as the powerful storm hit the Philippines on Thursday. Mid-call, he was cut off.

"There was only one point towards the beginning of the call when he seemed to lose his nerve a bit. He said he didn’t want to alarm us but if the worst comes to the worst he wanted us to know he loves us," Fitzpatrick's sister, Rachel, told the Birmingham Mail.

"That was when you saw how upset and worried he was but then when the wind was blowing the door and he was trying to block it he was just so brave, so brave. He does us very proud."

"It was a frightening experience for him — and for us," his mother Julie told Sky News. "We knew it was a serious typhoon that was headed their way so we didn't know what to expect."

After initially barricading themselves in a hotel room, Fitzpatrick and his colleagues decided to help others staying at the hotel get to safety.

They kicked down doors in the wind-battered hotel — panicked families couldn't open their doors as the wind was too strong — leading people to take shelter in a stairwell.

On Saturday morning, 33 hours later, Fitzpatrick was able to borrow a cell phone and send a text message to his family and girlfriend to let them know he had survived the typhoon that claimed up to 10,000 lives. He was safe.

"It was a very big relief. When we spoke to him before losing touch, he told us, 'I don't want to worry you, but I love you all,'" Fitzpatrick's girlfriend, Kirsty Smith, told the Daily Mail.

"He admitted he thought that was going to be it," Rachel told the Express and Star. "But he decided he didn’t want to go like that, and he wanted to go fighting."

"He and his friends started kicking doors down to get the families out of their rooms and into the stairwell, and taking bottled water to hand out to people. He said that in some rooms there were entire families, with eight children huddling on the bed.”

"Jonathan has walked away from it. There are a lot of people who haven't," his mother told Sky News. "He was not a hero, just working on his human instinct. In his eyes he has not done anything heroic, he has done normal things."

"The real heroes are the people out there sorting out this mess now, providing care, food and water."

Fitzpatrick helped the local clean-up operation and gave one man money to help rebuild his home, the Express and Star reported. He plans to return home to his family before the weekend.