A Pembrokeshire Wales Air Ambulance crew member and two of his colleagues have been honoured at a special ceremony at the House of Lords for helping save the life of the victim of a gas explosion.

Air ambulance paramedics Phil Thomas and Gareth Williams and pilot Grant Elgar are the air ambulance team of the year for 2010 after their dramatic role in treating and flying the horrifically injured man to hospital.

The crew were called to a business address in Bridgend where the 38-year-old man had suffered terrible injuries, including having one leg blown off, when a gas cylinder exploded.

Despite fading light and difficult weather conditions the crew helped treat the patient before pilot Grant, from Llanelli, flew him to Morriston Hospital in darkness and atrocious weather for emergency microsurgery, arriving just 34 minutes after the original 999 call.

The ASI ceremony is traditionally held at the Palace of Westminster and the Welsh Ambulance Services took no fewer than four of the 12 categories with other winners in the paramedic, ambulance technician and military awards, while two women from Swansea received the public spirited award after being nominated by the Welsh Ambulance Service.

Welsh Assembly Government Health Minister Edwina Hart has paid tribute to their success and said: "These awards recognise the excellent work the staff at the ambulance service do and the heroism of those who have gone beyond the call of duty. Their dedication and commitment is an example to us all."

The charity's aircrew were presented with their awards by Baroness Browning of Whimple at a glittering ceremony in the House of Lords also attended by Welsh Ambulance Services chairman Stuart Fletcher.

He said: "To take four of the 12 awards is an extraordinary achievement and shows the calibre of the staff we have serving the people of Wales.

"The skill, professionalism and courage of all three members of the team has been quite outstanding and the Baroness said she felt very humbled by their courage and sense of duty.

"She herself has had cause to thank the Wales Air Ambulance because her own brother was airlifted to safety by them in North Wales earlier this year.

"The awards are highly sought after and there were a high number of nominations from ambulance services from across the UK so this has been a remarkable achievement and one we can be very proud of."

Wales Air Ambulance chief executive Angela Hughes was also at the House of Lords and she said: "We are immensely proud of all of our aircrew and the lifesaving, skilled work that they do 365 days of the year. It is wonderful for this particular team to receive the recognition they deserve, for making such a difference to someone's life.

"This is what the Wales Air Ambulance charity is all about, and it's thanks to the people of Wales that this extraordinary work can be done by our valuable crew."

Paramedic Phil Thomas, clinical team leader at Pembroke Dock Ambulance Station, added: "It was a lovely occasion and fantastic to be there at the House of Lords and I'm elated top have won the award which is really for all the crews who do this work.

"It was an atrocious day when we were called to Bridgend. It was at the end of the shift and we were just about to put the helicopter back in the hangar.

"We didn't really know what we were going to see when we got there but it was pretty bad. It looked as if someone had stepped on a landmine.

"The patient had had one leg blown off and the other was very badly injured. There was massive blood loss and he needed micro surgery.

"In the conditions the pilot's skills in getting us back to Morriston were phenomenal and we did what we needed to do to keep him alive - there is no doubt it was the speed of the helicopter which saved his life.

"We should also remember that when we arrived he was already being treated by land-based paramedics from Bryncethin Ambulance Station. Our job was to continue aggressive treatment as we flew to Morriston Hospital, mainly to keep his blood pressure up as had lost a huge amount of blood."

They were nominated for the award by the Wales Air Ambulance after Jeff Morris, locality ambulance officer at Bryncethin Ambulance Station, Bridgend, put them forward for the Welsh Ambulance Service's Gail Williams Award for Clinical and Operational Excellence which they were awarded earlier this year.

Phil, who has 20 years' service with the ambulance service, 16 as a paramedic and eight with the Air Ambulance, added: "The award belongs to everyone involved with Wales Air Ambulance and every air ambulance crew across the UK.

"It starts with the volunteers out collecting change in buckets outside supermarkets to help keep us flying and ends with the surgeons who treat and save trauma victims that we get to hospital quickly thanks to our aircraft. That's the team and everyone involved deserves this award.