17
September
2014
|
16:25
Europe/London

Life-savers set to receive bravery awards from county's Chief Fire Officer

Roy Walker and Mark Seagroatt helped a 69-year-old woman and her 70-year-old husband out of the river near to Days Lock at Little Wittenham at around 5.55pm on Sunday October 6 last year, before crews from Oxfordshire County Council's Fire and Rescue Service and an air ambulance helicopter arrived at the scene.

The woman had fallen from a boat and had become stuck between it and the bank. Her husband had entered the water and was attempting to keep her above water.

Heard shouts for help

Mr Walker, of Gibbings Close, Buckingham, and Mr Seagroatt, of Fitwell Road, Swindon, heard shouts for help and dashed to the scene, hauling the couple from the water.

Oxfordshire County Council's Fire and Rescue Service's Chief Fire Officer David Etheridge will present them with a Commendation Award each at a ceremony at Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue headquarters at Kidlington Fire Station on Thursday September 18 from 7.30pm.

Waist-high smoke

Another award recipient will be Clint Walther, who during the night of 22 November last year saved a neighbour with a brain disease in Mill Lane, Shenington, west of Banbury, who had become disorientated because of waist-high smoke which resulted from a fire in her property.

The Banbury crew manager who attended the scene said that Mr Walther's actions saved the woman's life, as she would not have survived in the smoke-filled room the short time it took firefighters to arrive.

Life-saving actions

Mr Etheridge said: "These awards are very rarely given out - the criteria I set is that without the recipients' actions, would a life or lives have been lost, and certainly on both of these occasions the answer is undoubtedly yes.

"I personally congratulate Roy, Mark and Clint for their selfless, life-saving actions and I am very honoured to be giving out these commendations to them to mark their courage and bravery.

"All three were presented with situations where quick-thinking was required and they all reacted swiftly and ultimately saved the lives if three people."