That is the sharing of Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Chi Thanh - Deputy Captain of the Fire Fighting and Rescue Team (Fire Prevention and Rescue), Fire Prevention and Rescue Police Department (PC07), Ho Chi Minh City Police, a brave soldier, passionate about the job and committed. Over the past 20 years, he can't remember how many "death gates" he has gone through, only knowing how to dedicate himself to his comrades in fulfilling the responsibilities of a peacetime soldier.
Fighting the "fire enemy"
Originally from Thai Binh, but born and raised in Cu Chi (HCMC), since childhood, Mr. Thanh's family lived along the Saigon River. He has many times witnessed people drowning in accidents, their bodies no longer intact after many days of searching, especially his relatives who also tragically drowned. "That image really made my heart ache," he emotionally recalled and said it was the driving force that motivated him to pursue a career in rescue.
In April 2002, Mr. Thanh was mobilized to perform firefighting duties in U Minh Thuong national forest in Kien Giang - the first difficult task in his career. At that time, Mr. Thanh and 30 officers and soldiers, 20 pumps and 3 fire engines set out to "go to war". The rescue site, the forest terrain is difficult, while firefighting tools cannot be deployed, fire trucks cannot access the scene.
"We had to use human strength to dig a 4km water channel into the forest, and place a fire pump every 200m," he recalled.
After many days, Mr. Thanh and his teammates successfully completed the task, protecting 700 hectares of primary forest and preventing the fire from spreading to 10,000 hectares of planted forests.
I just want to live to serve the people
After 23 years in the profession, Mr. Thanh confided that when facing victims, he does not have time to think about himself, he only thinks about how to save their lives as quickly as possible, or at least bring the victims back. return to family to ease the pain of those left behind.
Recalling the time he and the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security's working group participated in the earthquake rescue in Türkiye in early 2023, Mr. Thanh said, it was a lifelong business trip that he will never forget. When they arrived, the whole team had no time to rest and had to start searching in temperatures of -6 degrees Celsius, without electricity or water, and had to live in temporary tents.
Mr. Thanh's team was assigned to a position that many other countries had previously searched for but had not found life. "We dug from dawn to dusk, cut iron, used body heat detectors, used our senses to detect the victim and a miracle happened," he said emotionally.
The whole team approached and rescued the 17-year-old male from the rubble amid the joy of the victim's family, local authorities and international rescue forces. After that, he continued with the group to search for 14 bodies.
Lieutenant Colonel Thanh said that at that time, the Government and people of Türkiye, as well as international friends, highly appreciated the sense of responsibility, capacity, modern means and professionalism of the Vietnamese Delegation.
"People ran out, we had to run in even though we knew it was dangerous but we couldn't help but do it," he said with tears in his eyes and told himself to always keep himself safe to continue dedicating himself to his profession. for the rest of your life.
