Two Indian workers Rengasamy Kabilarasan and Marudapillai Jayavelu were honoured with Public Spirted Awards (PSA) by Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). The duo had alerted the residents of a burning house by climbing over the gates and evacuating them to safety.
Rengasamy Kabilarasan and Marudapillai Jayavelu were working in the afternoon on November 10 when they were alerted to a fire at the second storey of a house across the road, along Sunset Place. Acting instinctively, the two foreign workers immediately ran over, scaled a gate to access the premises, alerted the occupants and quickly evacuated them to safety.
Their heroic act helped to prevent any loss of lives in the raging house fire. However, the two-storey bungalow at Sunset Place was charred. The award was presented to them by chairman of the Bukit Timah Citizens Consultative Committee Michelle Liem at the 1st SCDF Division Headquarters.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Public Spiritedness Award (PSA) was introduced in the early 1990s to acknowledge civic-minded acts by members of the public who stepped forward to save lives and/or property. Over the years, the PSA has proven to be a strategic means for the SCDF to promote community emergency preparedness and to encourage more members of the public to be actively involved at the onset of an emergency by stepping forward as community first responders prior to the SCDF’s arrival.