BRAVE ACT: Probationary Constable Brett Mooney (left) and Senior Constable Daniel La Velle received the Western Region Commander’s Commendation at the NSW Police Force Canobolas Local Area Command medals and awards presentation ceremony yesterday. Photo: LUKE SCHUYLER 0821lspolice2
“WE’RE just there to do a job. There’s no second thoughts, you just do what you’ve got to do.”
With these words Probationary Constable Brett Mooney summed up what it is like to be on the front line of the NSW Police Force.
Alongside Senior Constable Daniel La Velle, Probationary Constable Mooney threw self preservation out the window at Christmas time in 2010 when he entered a burning home in Coulson Place in a bid to rescue the occupants.
Fortunately, nobody was home.
“But they didn’t know that,” Canobolas Local Area Command (LAC) Superintendent David Driver said.
“They risked their lives to search the house and protect anyone that might have been there.”
For the act of bravery, the pair received the Western Region Commander’s Commendation at the NSW Police Force Canobolas LAC medals and awards presentation ceremony yesterday morning.
It is the thanks both deserve but often don’t receive.
“Having been inside burning homes, they are frightening,” Superintendent Driver said.
“Things explode, there’s noise, there’s smoke. The officers showed a lot of courage going into an environment without any breathing gear to see if anyone was in there.”
The awards were given to officers for either long service, dedication to long service or for individual acts of meritorious service as well as prolonged investigations into numerous crimes at yesterday’s ceremony at the Orange Agriculture Institute.
After receiving conflicting stories from neighbours, probationary constable Mooney said the it was an easy decision.
“Some said there might of been someone in there, some said there wasn’t. We just went in,” he said.
“There was three of us, we basically stayed in contact with each other working our way through the house.
“We made sure we were safe, that was the main thing but then we just worked our way through the house, cleared each room and we all stayed in contact and spoke to each other the whole time thought it.”