Press Releases - Royal Humane Society of Australasia

The awards, 2 Silver Medals will be presented by Mr M Keelty, APM, Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police.

crashed burning cars

a burning house during the Canberra bushfires

an armed assailant

Note: The Royal Humane Society of Australasia, formed in 1874, is concerned with giving public recognition to acts of bravery by making awards to those who risk their own lives to save the lives of others.

THE ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY OF AUSTRALASIA INVESTITURE OF BRAVERY AWARDS - TUESDAY 5 JULY 2005 CITATION

SILVER MEDAL

BRONZE MEDAL

ROY FERGUSON, Assistant Operations Officer – NSW Rural Fire Service, aged 59 years, of Orange, NSW,

BRONZE MEDAL

GEOFF CRUMBLIN, volunteer, Sydney Western Division, SES, of Baulkham Hills, NSW, aged 60 years, of NSW and;

BRONZE MEDAL

ROBERT PINTER, NSW Rural Fire Service Volunteer, of Bredbo, NSW, in going to the rescue of people trapped in two burning vehicles following a head-on collision, on the Monaro Highway, about 1km south of the Old Cooma Road turn-off to Royalla, ACT on 31 July 2005.

At 4.15pm Messrs Hearn, Ferguson, Crumblin, and Pinter whilst driving came upon a head-on collision involving two 4WDs with one of the vehicles on its side on fire. Mr Crumblin took his fire extinguisher and played it on the flames of the overturned car while Mr Ferguson went to the upright vehicle which was starting to catch fire and entered the rear of the vehicle. Mr Hearn also went to the upright vehicle and the two cut the seat belts of two children and passed them to safety through a side window which had been smashed by Messrs Crumblin and Pinter to assist with the exit from the car.

Mr Pinter took his fire extinguisher to play on the flames and helped Mr Hearn cut the driver’s seat belt and pull him to safety.

(Mr Hearn was presented with his medal at an investiture at Government House, Perth)

SILVER MEDAL

MARK RICHARD STEEL, police constable, aged 34 years, of Queanbeyan, NSW, in going to the rescue of a man from his burning house at Lyons, ACT on 18 January 2003.

During the Canberra bushfires Sgt Lamb and Const Steel were deployed at 11.30am to help divert traffic away from fire-affected areas in the Belconnen and then later, Weston areas.

Whilst in the Weston area they saw 50-80m high flames coming from the nearby Stromlo Pine Forest and as the heat became intense both policemen ran to their vehicle and noticed that the rear of it was beginning to melt. They reported to Police Communications that the fire was heading towards the suburb of Lyons and advised that they would attend the area to help.

At about 5.30pm they arrived at Lyons and could see residences in one street were engulfed in flames and that the bushland surrounding the rear of theses premises was well alight with flames about 20-30m high and travelling with immense pace. They then began a systematic external and internal search of houses to make sure that the residents had vacated.

At one residence Sgt Lamb noticed a pair of legs protruding from the side of a house and saw an unconscious man lying on his back between a motor vehicle and the house which were both well alight. Sgt Lamb called out to Const Steel for assistance and they carried the semi-conscious man to the front of the residence and requested an ambulance.

Sgt Lamb and Const Steel continued to search for people possible trapped in their homes and helped to extinguish flames that threatened dwellings with garden hoses until the fires appeared under control and ceased duties at 3.00am the following day.

BRONZE MEDAL

ANTHONY PETER GHIRARDELLO, police officer, aged 50 years, of Canberra, ACT, in going to the rescue of a victim being held at knife point at Gordon, ACT on 14 September 2006.

At 1.20am Sgt Ghirardello, together with other policemen arrived at a premises in Gordon following information that a man was threatening to kill another man and also take his own life.

Sgt Ghirardello approached the glass sliding door and saw the defendant holding a knife with his right hand. He also had two other knives down his pants wedged between his skin and boxer shorts. The defendant held the knife up to his own throat making threats of self-harm and did this numerous times while standing between the lounge and dining rooms. At this stage the victim was situated in the kitchen.

The man started to move towards Sgt Ghirardello who slid the glass door partially shut. The man was slightly unsteady on his feet and appeared to be heavily intoxicated and at this stage the policemen requested the attendance of SRS Response and Police Negotiating Teams while the man and Sgt Ghiraradello continued talking.

At times during negotiations the man would move the victim about keeping him in front of himself with the knife at his throat. The man would go from times of calmness to anger, would not put the knives down and continually stated that the police would have to kill him.

Negotiations continued for about two hours and during this time Sgt Ghirardello thought that he would have to resort to the use of lethal force on a number of occasions as the man continued to hold the knife to the throat of the victim. Sgt Ghirardello continually asked the defendant to release the victim, to no avail.

Negotiations continued until Sgt Ghirardello and other attending police were told to leave the premises. Members of the Police Negotiating Team and SRS took up positions at the glass sliding door. On leaving the defendant started to call out for Sgt Ghiraradello to return.

At about 4.40am Sgt Ghirardello was told by the negotiators that the defendant would release the victim if he was reassured that he would not be hurt. Sgt Ghirardello reassured the defendant who released the victim shortly afterwards.