Top cops receive awards for bravery

Bravery honours have been awarded to three of Nelson’s police officers after they rescued a man from a burning building.

Nelson police Sergeant Brett Currie and constables Aisea Lata and Hamish Wybrow were presented with a certificate of medal and two bronze medals, respectively, for going above and beyond to ensure the safety of the public.

The Royal Humane Society of New Zealand held a special ceremony last week hosted by Nelson City Council to honour the work of by Currie, Lata and Wybrow in September 2015.

Currie said the trio had been working a night shift when they were called to Atawhai Dve. Two people were reported trapped inside a burning upper-storey apartment.

When they arrived the manager of the building guided Lata and Wybrow upstairs while Currie grabbed a fire extinguisher from his car and followed on.

‘‘As we arrived we could actually see the male hanging out the window of the apartment that was on fire,’’ Currie said.

When Lata and Wybrow arrived at the door, it was blocked.

They had no choice but to barge it open. Once inside the fire was spreading through the kitchen and they had to grapple with the man inside to help him out of the burning room.

The three were coming downstairs when Currie arrived.

He went past them into the room to manage the flames until the fire services arrived.

Lata came back into the apartment to search for another person.

‘‘About the same time my fire extinguisher ran out Hamish was trying to come back in and I shouted ‘no, no, no’ and shouted for Aisea to come back out.’’

What Currie, Lata and Wybrow didn’t know at the time was the second person had left the apartment earlier to raise the alarm with the building’s manager.

‘‘No, there was no training involved. It was simply, do what needed to be done,’’ Currie said about the rescue.

‘‘We are the type of people who are in this job that if someone is in distress then we’re going to go to their aid if we possibly can.’’

Currie said he was humbled by the award.

‘‘He said it wasn’t something he hadn’t expected because he initially nominated Lata and Wybrow for an internal police award for their work that night.

‘‘I thought they did an exceptional job in going in and forcing the door open and dragging the person out.

They did the hard yards and I happened to follow along behind,’’ Currie said.

‘‘It’s a huge honour for them, really. To be recognised by an external agency for their bravery is fantastic.’’