By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Showing cool heads in a crisis, two girls from Narre Warren and Berwick have emerged as heroes during dramatic fires at their homes.
Emily Ray, 15, and Gabrielle Singh, 9, received Junior Triple Zero Hero awards on 30 May for their decisive responses, including quickly calling for help on triple-zero.
As she did homework, Gabrielle showed remarkable composure when smoke alarms blared in her Berwick house one Monday afternoon.
Gabrielle’s father Joseph Singh and uncle Ross Mollenhauer rushed to a bed that had combusted into fierce flames, perhaps due to an errant match used to light candles.
As the adults tried to extinguish the blaze with woollen blankets, Gabrielle was straight on the phone to triple-zero.
“There’s a fire in the room,” she confidently told the operator – who immediately summoned two fire trucks.
After being told family members were in the house, the operator said: “Can you tell everyone to go outside?”
“My dad and my uncle are trying to stop the fire,” Gabrielle says.
Under the operator’s instructions, Gabrielle escorted her six-year-old sister Tewila to safety.
Gabrielle is heard during the call, shouting: “We have to go outside. You have to come quickly!”
During the call, the operator speaks to a “grown-up kid” who had been riding past on his bike, a concerned adult neighbour and then eventually Mr Singh.
The operator tells him to make sure everyone was out of the house, it was not worth risking his life.
Fire brigade members soon arrived and immediately put out the flames, which had already destroyed the bedroom.
Gabrielle’s aunt Shareen Mollenhauer said if not for Gabrielle’s quick action, the fire could well have spread through the house.
She described her niece as a confident, articulate and well-organised student at St Catherine’s Catholic Primary School.
“We’re very proud of what she did,” Ms Mollenhauer said.
“She puts all of the things she learns into practice.”
Meanwhile, Emily Ray had also managed to put out an oven fire even while her house filled with smoke.
She rang triple-zero explaining what had happened and ensured her two pets were safe.
Emily and Gabrielle were among 51 awardees feted by the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority at a ceremony.
They were presented their awards by Emergency Services Minister James Merlino and comedian Dave Hughes.
“Victoria’s brave Junior Triple Zero Heroes remained remarkably cool, calm and collected, and are shining examples of how preparing children for an emergency can save lives,” Mr Merlino said.
