Chief among 11 Delhi firefighters awarded President’s medals for service, gallantry

The President’s fire service medal for gallantry is awarded to those fire service officers who have displayed bravery while dealing with fire situations, Delhi Fire Services chief Atul Garg said.

Eleven officers of the Delhi Fire Services (DFS), a department which has been kept busy in the recent past with a series of fatal fire incidents and building collapses, were awarded on Republic Day.

Delhi Fire Services director Atul Garg (HT Photo)

According to DFS director Atul Garg, who won the President’s fire service medal for distinguished service, only once in the past have there been so many awards for gallantry among the city’s fire officers on Republic Day. “We won 11 awards In 2017 as well. But this time we won five medals for gallantry, unlike in 2017, when we won four,” said Garg.

The President’s fire service medal for gallantry is awarded to those fire service officers who have displayed bravery while dealing with fire situations, Garg said.

This year, late fireman Vijender Pal Singh has been conferred the award posthumously. “Vijender Pal died in a cylinder blast while fighting a fire in an industrial area along Rohtak Road in Delhi in May 2017,” Garg said.

Assistant divisional officer Avtar Singh too received the gallantry award for the same incident, as well as for saving the lives of around 70 people sleeping in a building that caught fire in west Delhi’s Pitampura in June last year.

Three other officers, Anil Kumar, Ram Kumar and Arvind Dagar were among the recipients of the gallantry award for their role in saving 13 people from a burning building in Masudabad in outer Delhi in October 2017.

Director Garg and deputy chief fire officer Virendra Singh were awarded the President’s fire service medal for distinguished service. Since December, the fire department has been involved in a number of operations — the Anaj Mandi fire and Peeragarhi factory fire prominent among them.

Garg had served as the deputy commandant in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) before joining the Delhi Fire Services as divisional officer in 2002. He was made the director of DFS last year.

Four other officers were awarded the fire service medal for meritorious service. These included divisional officers DB Mukherjee and Rajendra Athwal, assistant divisional officer Ashok Kumar Jaiswal and fireman Dharambir Singh.