Cuttack: Nine fire services personnel, who rescued a three-year-old girl from a borewell in Angul district Monday, were felicitated by director general (Fire) Bijay Kumar Sharma here Wednesday.
Sharma felicitated assistant fire officers Sarveswar Baral, Mishra Kishan, Rajendra Kumar Deo, Nirmalya Prasad Baral, Prakash Kumar Behera, Sukanta Samal, Satya Narayan Khuntuli, Prasant Kumar Nayak and Alekh Chandra Rout with citations at the fire services headquarters here for showing an exemplary bravery while discharging their duty.
“Those personnel who are doing well in their services were called at the headquarters and are being felicitated. This practice will boost the morale of the personnel and encourage them to discharge their duty with utmost dedication. We have also recommended to the state government to provide cash award to the personnel who are doing well in their services,” Sharma said.
Sharma further said these personnel who had rescued the little girl did not have any previous experience. They had neither carried out such operation earlier, nor did they receive any training for it. However, their heroic act is indeed commendable.”
“Now, the duty of the fire personnel is not limited to dousing flames. They discharge duty during natural calamities and engage in other rescue acts. However, there is need for procurement of modern equipment to carry out such rescue operations. Besides, we will impart special training to the fire personnel for rescue operation in future,” Sharma added.
Notably, the minor girl, Radharani, daughter of Santosh Sahu of Golasar under Jamunali gram panchayat of Angul district had accidentally fell into the borewell while she was playing near it at 9am December 25. While the hole of the borewell was 90-feet deep and 9 inch in width, the minor girl was struck at 13 feet depth.
On being informed, the fire personnel rushed to the spot and dug a parallel hole of 15-16 feet away from the borewell with the help of an earthmover. Then a tunnel was dug to connect to the borewell. The fireman went down the parallel hole and rescued the girl after a seven hours.
PNN
