DART receives award for two recent fire and rescue incidents

ALL content used in this not-for-profit blog remain the property of their respective owners.
http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120807-0000037/DART-receives-award

For their part in two recent fire and rescue incidents, the Singapore Civil Defence Force's (SCDF) elite rescue team has been awarded the Minister for Home Affairs National Day Team Award.

The Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART) was activated for the East Village Hotel fire and Downtown Line Bugis Station scaffolding collapse last month, and raced against time to save lives.

"Our officers are at the front line, protecting Singapore and Singaporeans every day. The two recent major fire and rescue incidents ... are good examples, indeed, vivid examples of this," Second Minister for Home Affairs S Iswaran said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Alan Toh said he was proud of his officers. "In the East Village fire, we were asked to set up two water jets and attack the fire from the front of the hotel. We were told the front of the foyer was not safe at all, but there were no questions asked," he said. "We knew we had to do the job, we set up the jet and we moved in."

The hotel fire on July 16 took six hours to put out. The Downtown Line incident on July 18 saw several DART officers needing treatment for chemical burns during the seven-hour rescue operations.