Brave PCs to be honoured at national awards

8 July 2022

Two Hertfordshire police officers who saved the life of a disabled man badly burned in a flat fire will be recognised at the national Police Bravery Awards in London next week.

The man was already fighting for his life after receiving significant burns in the fire when PCs Ashley Crowe and Matthew Henry-Randell arrived on the scene.

They stayed “calm and professional as chaos occurred around them” to initially carry the man away from the fire before giving him life-saving CPR.

The officers were on duty when the incident happened last year in Cheshunt.

Firefighters were already on the scene when the officers arrived to find two vulnerable people were inside the property, which was well alight. A woman was rescued via a fourth-floor window, but the man was still inside the block and severely injured.

PC Ashley Crowe (left) and PC Matthew Henry-Randell

PC Henry-Randell, who has served Hertfordshire Police for three years, said: “I ran up the two flights of stairs to get to the firefighter and the victim, who was on the floor badly burnt and clearly not breathing.”

The officers carried the man down a flight of stairs and took it in turns to give him CPR.

PC Crowe, who has been an officer for five years, said: “He didn’t have a pulse and wasn’t breathing. We carried on with CPR until we had help to carry him out of the burning building to the grass area outside the flats.”

A defibrillator was used to resuscitate the man before he was taken by air ambulance to hospital. The officers then registered all of the residents to ensure no one else was still in the building before helping with road closures.

Their actions have been recognised with a Chief Constable’s Commendation.

The Police Bravery Awards are organised by the Police Federation of England and Wales and will take place in London on 14 July. The annual awards honour some of the finest officers in England and Wales who have performed incredible acts of bravery, while on or off duty.

Winners of the eight regional awards will go forward for the overall national award.