A Firefighter from Botoșani Is Named „The Honorary Rescuer of the Year”

The vice-prime minister for the national security, the ministry of the Internal Affairs Gabriel Oprea has awarded today, on „The Firefighter’s Day in Romania”, the class of „Honorary Rescuer of the Year” to first sergeant Dorel – Ciprian Guşilă of the „Nicolae Iorga” Inspectorate for Emergency Situations in Botoșani county for his professionalism and the presence of mind in the rescuing of two people fallen in a well, over 16 m in depth.

In most cases, the mission itself starts with the first emergency call. On the morning of November 6th 2013, a gloomy day of late fall, first sergeant Dorel Ciprian Gușilă, 36 years old, was training together with his team that he leads within the Dorohoi Firefighter Squad.

In order to be efficient in his missions, the firefighter is continuously training, with perseverance and attention to every detail, by using given physical, technical and intelectual resources. „To act like a firefighter” is the idion used by those who see the firefighters going on a mission and who are not able to see the amount of work behind these actions.

45 km away, in the town of Darabani, two men, aged 29 and 39, has started to set the pipes inside a 16 m deep well. None of them knew that, a few km away from them, a guardian angel was about to help them be re-born. They had managed to install the sixth pipe when the older one, who was inside the well, suddenly collapsed. Worried, his mate descended in the well to bring him up. The carbon monoxide inside the well left the other man unconscious as well, at 16 m underground. Facing a critical situation, their co-workers called for the firefighters and the ambulance.

The call was diverted to the Dorohoi Firefighter Squad and Darabani Ambulance Sub-station. Being in the same locality, the medical team reached the scene in a couple of minutes. Without the firefighters’ help, who were 45 km away, they could not intervene in giving the first aid. With the dispatched team was also first sergeant Dorel Ciprian Guşilă. After a brief analysis and taking into account that they were still 40 minutes away from the two people in need, the under-officer came up with a brilliant idea. „By considering the distance, we were risking to to find the two men dead. I suggested to the squad commander to speak with the medical team and tell them to attach a hose to the oxygen tank in order to get oxygen inside the well. They found a hose that a a neighbour was using to water his garden and took my advice. That way we managed to keep the two men alive”, recalls first sergeant Dorel Ciprian Guşilă.

Uopn their arrival, the under-officer and his team started to make the necessary preparations in order to rescue the people from inside the well. One of the two captive men was still unconscious. The rescue gear was immediately lowered in the well and, through communication and perfect understanding between the under-officer and the conscious man, they managed to set the unconscious young man in the rescue straps and bring him up on the ground. All this time, the oxygenation of the place continued. While the medical team of the County Ambulance Service was resuscitating and giving him the first aid, the firefighters intervened to draw out the second man. He , in his turn, needed medical emergency care.

In less than half an hour, the two men were rescued from their captivity by the firefighters, being then taken to the hospital for further medical care. The actual rescue intervention of the two men was carried out within a narrow area, 16 m underground, under the emergency of possible landslide and the fact that the two men were partially conscious.

With a modesty characteristic to a firefighter, Dorel Ciprian Guşilă thanked, after the mission had been completed, to his team and the medical team of the County Ambulance Service for all the effort. The strength and cohesion of the team and its leader’s part in the assessment of the necessary actions by using all the resources was proven once again.