2024 POLICE BRAVERY AWARDS


THAMES VALLEY A heroic team of 10 officers (pictured right on the opposite page) put their lives on the line, surviving a gas explosion, to rescue a casualty and residents from an out-of-control fire. The force received a call from a member of the public reporting a caravan was on fire and had exploded. Approaching the scene, the sky turned to a glow of orange with flames billowing out tens of metres into the air. They were met with dozens of bewildered residents lining the streets of the site. They immediately began giving instructions to residents, to clear them back away from the fire. Within seconds, a casualty was found sat in the middle of the road just a few metres away from the fire, which had encompassed the entire caravan and was spreading to a neighbouring van.


With the fire raging and spreading out of control, two of the officers ran straight past the fire in order to reach the casualty. By this point the fire was rapidly growing, spreading across other properties and engulfing the road. They grabbed various medical packs and equipment and sprinted towards the blaze, paramedics in tow.


In the meantime, concerns were growing on the opposite side of the fire, when information was received that an elderly couple were unaccounted for in a property that backed straight onto it. Two of the officers began trying to raise the occupants by banging on the doors and windows. Officers began formulating an evacuation plan, knowing they were cut off and the only way back to the ambulance would be to travel the entire way around the perimeter of the site.


They began fashioning a makeshift stretcher out of a board and limb restraints but whilst doing so, there was a huge secondary explosion from a 25L propane gas cylinder inside the caravan. The blast sent an enormous fireball in excess of 50 metres into


the sky, knocked several officers with the casualty to the floor, and caused debris to cascade down in all directions. They narrowly avoided large chunks of caravan hurtling


towards them, which would have almost certainly killed them, just as they were about to enter the neighbour’s garden. Four of the officers, along with firefighters, then grabbed the


stretcher and began extracting the casualty, all the time shouting for residents to evacuate the site. The officers gathered themselves together as a team, checked themselves for any injuries and then ran straight back towards the fire to continue evacuating residents until the blaze was brought under control.


WARWICKSHIRE PS Adam Skelsey relentlessly pursued a recognised wanted suspect despite being off duty with no protective equipment, and after being assaulted multiple times. PS Skelsey observed a male who was wanted and notorious for being evasive to catch. Despite lacking personal protective equipment or a radio, he instinctively tried to prevent the male from evading custody. Identifying himself as a police officer, he seized the male. However, another individual accompanying the suspect intervened and encouraged him to assault PS Skelsey to escape.


32 | POLICE | JUNE | 2024


flooding. Thinking on their feet, the officers skilfully formed a human chain and waded in to offer reassurance and maintain her calm demeanour. Despite the car’s electrics being disabled by the water, the


officers broke open the driver’s side window and


pulled her to safety, just moments before the vehicle sank. Assessed at the scene by the West Midlands Ambulance


Service, the woman remarkably did not require treatment. Without the officers’ decisive intervention and prompt, courageous actions, her life would have been in danger.


WEST MIDLANDS A firearms officer put his life on the line by crawling underneath car crash wreckage to successfully save the lives of two elderly victims. The PC, who does not wish


to be named, accompanied by three other firearms officers, swiftly responded to a traffic collision.


Despite the assault, he held onto the suspect and sought


assistance from the public. Fortunately, a nearby shop heard the commotion and notified the police.


An outnumbered PS Skelsey pursued the offender who broke


free to a nearby carpark, a move that heightened the danger by taking them out of public view. He managed to apprehend the wanted suspect once more, but the second assailant intervened again and assaulted him to aid the male’s escape. Despite the repeated assaults, he persevered as the male


attempted to climb a wall, kicking his face in the process. With the aid of other units, he coordinated a search despite


sustaining injuries to his arms and hands to ensure the male did not escape custody or cause a prolonged search effort.


WEST MERCIA PS Shannon Murphy, PS Lee Baker and PC Thomas Simmonds formed a human chain to rescue a woman from her car which was beginning to sink to the bottom of a river.


In April 2023, a woman was rescued from her Mini in Worcestershire after it ended up in a flooded ford between Pershore and Drakes Broughton. Arriving on scene, the car was almost completely submerged and about 10 metres downstream due to heavy rainfall causing flash


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