I was absolutely delighted to welcome PC Owen Davies and PC Rhiannon Hurst from Gwent Police to Parliament.  They are both nominees for the Police Bravery Awards. They will be attending the award ceremony on 27 October 2015.  

Details of incident they were nominated for:

At around 2.30am on Thursday 9th January 2014, Constables Rhiannon Hurst and Owen Davies were on uniformed mobile patrol in the Newport area of Gwent.

They received a call that house was on fire in Llanwern Street.

On arrival they were confronted with a three storey end of terrace property, the roof of which was well ablaze. It was a chaotic scene with ambulance service already in attendance.

They entered the smoke filled house and started to search for the occupants, finding a number of adults in different areas of the house. As the fire raged it became more difficult to breath and the heat became almost unbearable, they took a total of 7 family members out of the house to safety. The adults were extremely alarmed and upset by the developing drama in their house.

In clearing the house they were told that there was a disabled child trapped in the attic room of the house.

Both officers re-entered the house, making their way closer to the seat of the fire.

They located the access door to the attic on the first floor landing, but were unable to open it. Constable Hurst then left to summon further assistance, whilst Constable Davies tried in vain on force open the door.

The noise of the fire became deafening, the heat unbearable and the smoke suffocating. Despite this Constable Davies continued to try to force open the door. Suddenly burning wood began to fall from the ceiling, burning his clothing and boots. Even after this he continued to try to forcethe door open, but eventually he was forced to beat a retreat as further burning wood fell from the ceiling.

Once outside the fire service had arrived and they were able to explain where the child was in the property. The fire service entered in full breathing apparatus and forced entry to the attic room.

During the intervening period the child had climbed onto the roof of the property and with the use of ladders they were able to safely rescue him.

Fortunately none of the members of public or police officers were seriously injured from the fire, which was later revealed as having been caused by an electrical fault.