Heroes from across Victoria recognised for courageous efforts
From daring rescues from burning buildings and submerged cars, these Victorians risked it all to save the lives of others. See who made the list.
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From saving people from burning buildings or running towards a house fire when others had turned away, these Victorians have risked their lives to save others.
The courageous acts of these Victorians have on Tuesday been recognised by the Governor-General.
“Today we recognise and celebrate the bravery of 66 people who put themselves in danger to help others. The courage they showed is matched by their selflessness and they deserve our respect, gratitude and recognition,” the Governor-General said.
“Each of the stories is striking and inspiring. In perilous situations the people we are celebrating chose to try and save others – often at great risk or cost to themselves.
“On behalf of all Australians, I congratulate recipients and offer our thanks for their brave action.”
Man on fire
On February 28 2021, Sergeant Mark Eade displayed immense courage and quick thinking when he faced a terrifying situation. Responding to reports of a man lying in the middle of the road, little did he know that what he was about to encounter would be a true test of his courage.
As he arrived on the scene, Sergeant Eade noticed a man lying next to a bicycle surrounded by three onlookers. Without wasting any time, he approached the man to try and speak to him. However, to his surprise, he soon realised that the man was on fire - his entire upper body was engulfed in flames.
The man was in agony and trying to get up, but Sergeant Eade knew he had to act fast. He yelled at the man to drop and roll, but the man was in too much pain to notice. Without hesitation, Sergeant Eade pushed the man to the ground in an attempt to extinguish the flames, but it was no help.
Undeterred, Sergeant Eade sprung into action once again. He quickly grabbed the man‘s burning jumper and removed it from his body, throwing it to the side.
“I acted on reflex, there was no time to think about it,” Sergeant Eade, who was born and raised in Shepparton, told the Herald Sun.
“I’m sure a lot of my colleagues would have done the same thing.”
By this time a police van had arrived and Sergeant Eade instructed them to extinguish the flames.
Though he suffered serious burns to his upper body, the man was treated by ambulance crews and is alive today thanks to Sergeant Eade’s heroic bravery and quick-thinking.
Sergeant Eade also sustained minor burns.
“I have met him since that day and it was quite emotional for him,” Sergeant Eade said. “He is doing better.”
Ballarat house fire rescue
Riley Seccull knew he had to act fast when he heard a smoke alarm go off and saw black plumes of smoke rising from a house as he rode down a suburban street in Ballarat on the afternoon February 22, 2020.
The teenager then saw an elderly lady in the front yard who told him that her husband was still trapped inside. Riley wasted no time and dashed inside the fiery home. Amid the thick smoke and raging flames, he found an elderly man attempting to extinguish a fire in the kitchen. Without a second thought, the teen sprang into action and escorted the elderly gentleman to safety.
After successfully evacuating the man, he re-entered the house to find the fire had burnt itself out. He then re-entered the house a third time to open a window to clear the house of smoke.
Heroic brothers
On March 30 2018, Daniel White and his brother Nicholas White were cruising down the Burke and Wills Track in Baynton to move some sheep when they stumbled upon a confronting scene.
A car was at the bottom of a steep embankment, with smoke coming from its engine and a person trapped in the driver's seat.
Mr White described what he saw as “stressful”.
He took swift action moving his car to block oncoming traffic, while his brother tried to free the driver from the now burning car. Despite the flames, Mr White dashed back to assist his brother in saving the driver - putting their own lives on the line to save another in a “team effort”.
When he reached the car he saw the driver’s trousers were on fire. His brother unclipped the drivers seatbelt and together they pulled the driver from the burning car, laying him down a distance from the car and removing his trousers.
“He was sort of upside down and pretty beaten up,” Mr White told the Herald Sun.
“There was a lot of time pressure around the car burning up and to get him out.”
The brothers pulled the driver away as the fire grew in size and caught surrounding grass and scrub on fire.
Ammunition cartridges on the back seat of the car then exploded.
Whenever Mr White drives past the turn he remembers the day the event unfolded and reflects upon how “people do heroic things all the time” in their everyday life.
“I’ve got two kids at home and it's nice to have something to tell them about,” he said.
Rescue during black summer fires
On a very hot summer night on December 30, 2019, Leading Senior Constable Raymond Moreland and Leading Senior Constable Trace were on duty and monitoring bushfire activity when they saw a fire taking hold north of Buchan.
Knowing an elderly couple lived close by, they raced towards the property.
Upon arrival they realised the fire had already started burning the house, with one side already engulfed by flames.
The officers then noticed the couple’s car parked on the road, with an elderly male attempting to douse the flames with a garden hose.
The pair knew they had to act fast and they charged towards the house, but the heat and thick smoke pushed them back towards their vehicle.
As the wind shifted direction, Leading Senior Constable Moreland rallied his strength and was able to reach the corner of the house.
He guided the elderly man through the fire and smoke, leading him to the safety of their police car.
Meanwhile, Leading Senior Constable Trace dashed into the house and ran into the woman, telling her they had to leave immediately. But despite the increasing intensity of the fire the woman ran back inside to gather personal belongings.
He followed her inside and struggled to find her in the dark room, but eventually succeeded in evacuating her to safety.
House fire rescue attempt
It was meant to be a normal barbecue for a group of Elmhurst residents on December 28, 2019.
By chance, the group happened to have several trained CFA volunteers and Leading Senior Constable Grant Healey on hand when they received a phone call about a nearby fire.
Interstate travellers Peter Wilson and Mark Stephens were on a camping trip from South Australia. They had spent the day on a four-wheel drive trip when they came out of the Elmhurst showgrounds and noticed flames shooting out from a nearby house.
“We could see flames coming up from a backyard and I said to Mark ‘half the state is on fire and he’s burning off in his backyard’ ... so we’ve driven past and realised it’s not a backyard on fire, the house is on fire,” Mr Wilson said.
“The flames were breaking through the roof so Mark started banging on the house trying to rouse anyone in there and I rang Triple-0.”
Soon after the group at the barbecue joined them to devise a rescue plan. Four went into the property and three others went to get equipment from the nearby fire station.
“It was a pretty intense night, what started as a nice, chilled out barbecue quickly became not quite as chilled out,” Justin McKenzie added.
The thick smoke and intense heat made entry to the house challenging.
Mr McKenzie remembers trying to crawl through the house while trying to suck air from the floorboards, which had the only clean air in the building.
The fire was predominantly contained to the front of the house but repeated flashovers saw the heat and spread of the fire increase.
Working together, some of the group battled the flames with a hose outside while those inside found resident John Francese. Leading Senior Constable Healey, with a handkerchief over his face, found him on the bed and helped pull him down the hallway towards the rear door.
“Grant went in ... and all the other CFA members arrived with the truck and they did a hell of a job with what they had to get that fire out and everything done,” Mr Wilson said.
“Grant’s gone straight to the bedroom and seen Johnny lying on the bed so he’s grabbed him and dragged him as far as he could but Grant’s half gone down with smoke inhalation.
“I’ve taken a breath, taken two steps in and grabbed Grant as he’s gotten up and we’ve dragged Johnny and started doing CPR.”
“It felt like we were there for hours but from when we first breached the door to when we had John outside, it was probably less than half an hour, it just felt like forever,” he added.
The group, including Jonathan Keith, Sarah Keithm Geoffrey Rogers and Steven Whiting, moved Mr Francese outside and attempted to revive him but he tragically died at the scene.
“It was certainly a group effort because we could have easily lost two or three members that evening,” Geoffrey Penna OAM said.
“So I am grateful that the next day when we had a debrief those guys were there.
“It’s built a bond between us, I am sure.”
Mr Wilson added: “You don’t get over it but you learn to live with the ghosts.”
Leading Senior Constable Healey became the 352nd recipient of the Victoria Police Bravery Award for his efforts while the group were also honoured by Victoria Police for their bravery last year.
Mr Wilson and Stephens returned to Elmhurst in 2021 and met up with their other group members from that fateful night over a barbecue.
Brave water rescue
Leading Senior Constable Simon Barker managed to save an elderly couple who feared their time was up after their car veered into O’Keefe’s Dam in Creswick.
The couple’s car had gone into the dam around 11am on November 7 in 2019 and sunk to almost four metres deep.
Leading Senior Constable Barker was at the scene shortly after and did not hesitate to enter the dam to try and save the couple from their sinking car.
A 39-year-old Ballarat tradie from another car waded in to help him try to free the husband from the driver’s side.
“They were both in a lot of shock. They had said their final goodbyes to each other while they were in the car - they thought their time was up - they thought they were about to die,” the officer said at the time.
After rushing the husband to the safety of the bank nearby, the pair returned to free the wife from the passenger side as the water quickly rose around them.
“The water was up to chest level by then. It would only have been another 30 seconds to a minute and the car would have been under the water.”
Flaming car rescue
Three police officers have earned recognition after they banded together to save two people from a flaming car in Morwell.
Detective Leading Senior Constable Joey Kurtschenko, Detective Senior Constable Jarred Smith and Sergeant Mark Smith found a car which had collided with a tree in Morwell around 2.50pm on April 29, 2019.
The officers approached the burning car as thick smoke emanated from it, as they realised it was the same car earlier being pursued in relation to an armed robbery.
One officer broke the rear passenger window and noticed a man inside. They worked together to pull him out of the car and to the median strip for safety.
As the fire continued, officers noticed another person in the rear of the car. They acted quickly to smash the driver side and passenger side rear windows to help free the man.
With the help of two onlookers, they managed to pull the second man to safety as the car became engulfed in flames.
Horrific dog attack
A tragic night left the Biancofiore family reeling after a pet American staffordshire terrier turned on and killed a loving father.
Police officers Senior Constable David Bojczenko, Senior Constable Priyanka Dunlop, Senior Constable Rebecca Noviello and Senior Constable Thomas Shakespeare all attended a Mill Park address to a report of a dog attack at the property on July 10, 2019.
When the officers arrived around 6.30pm they looked over a fence into the backyard, where they saw a man lying motionless on the ground as an American Staffordshire terrier attacked. They also saw a woman lying injured in a chair.
Two of the officers jumped the fence and were confronted by the dog, Junior. One sprayed him with OC foam, causing it to briefly run away, before it tried to attack again. This occurred on three successive occasions.
The officer kicked the dog and struck it with a baton, causing it to briefly retreat and give them the opportunity to draw their weapons.
One officer shot and the dog and missed, but the sound scared him and ir ran around the side of the house.
The two other officers took this opportunity to jump the fence. The dog then returned and after numerous attempts to put space between them, including two more shots, one officer used a metal chair to fend off the dog and push it through an open door into the house and locked it inside.
Officers were then able to render first aid to the woman, Donata Biancofiore. Sadly her husband Leo did not survive his injuries.
Neighbours described the scene as being like something not seen “even in a horror movie” while son Mark Biancofiore was left “pretty distraught” in the days after the “ unfortunate situation”.
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