Fire Officer Receives Royal Humane Society Award for Rescue of Man from Fire

Today an off-duty Fire Officer has been presented with a Royal Humane Society Award for her part in the rescue of a man from a burning building in Beauly, Inverness-shire last October.

On 23 October 2009, Nikki Hercher, of Beauly was notified by another local resident that a neighbouring building on Croyard Park was on fire. Nikki quickly established there was someone inside the property by shouting from outside, and when the man ceased to respond, she made the decision to enter the property to help the man within. She located the man and safely got him out of the property and he sustained no serious injury as a result of her actions.

Chief Inspector Andrew MacLean praised Nikki's actions: "I am delighted to have presented Nikki with this award which we nominated her for. Her actions were very brave and undoubtedly saved the man from serious injury or a worse fate."

Nikki Hercher went on to talk of her delight at receiving this award: "Gaining this prestigious award is amazing but it really is the last thing you think of at the time. All I knew was that there was someone inside and I had the training to help but the local support at this incident made all the difference and I certainly wouldn't say it is just myself that should be commended.

"I would encourage all members of the public who are on the scene of a fire to contact emergency services immediately and if anyone is unfortunately within a building on fire, I advise them to stay as low to the ground as they can and get out at the nearest exit.

"You can never be too prepared for a fire and I would encourage everyone to visit the Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue website on www.hifrs.org for more safety advice and to book a free home fire safety check."