A regional daily has tracked down a man rescued  from a fire as a baby 57 years ago following a Transatlantic search.

HTFP reported a fortnight ago how the Easter Daily Press had launched an appeal to reunited 89-year-old railwayman Alan Baker with the child he saved from a burning house in Norwich in 1962.

The story made the front page of the then-Eastern Evening News, and now New Hampshire man Phil Stracchino, pictured, has come forward to thank Mr Baker for his lifesaving actions for the first time.

Mr Stracchino moved to the USA after his parents returned there in 1980, and he was successfully traced by EDP reader Rachel Hardingham after searching online birth records of babies born in Norwich around 1960.

The Norwich-based newspaper had received dozens of phone calls, emails, and tags on social media following the publication of the initial appeal last month.

Mr Stracchino, 59, told the EDP: “I really have no memories of it myself. I recall my parents telling me years ago that the fire service took away the remaining parts of the kerosene heater after the fire, and were unable to determine what had caused it to explode.

“They also told me my crib had solid plywood ends that protected me from most of the blast and fragments.”

The married father-of-three added: “It sounds as though I owe Mr Baker a sincere thank you.”

Mr Baker told the EDP he was happy that Mr Stracchino had been found and said he would like to meet him in the future.

Senior reporter Donna-Louise Bishop, who led the campaign, told HTFP: “I was surprised at the attention the article received and was even more surprised when one reader emailed me to say she had found the baby – now a 59-year-old father-of-three, living with his wife in America.

“It is always wonderful when our readers react to a story in such a positive way and really it is thanks to them that this article was able to be written.”