The story of a staff soldier on the front line against the 'fire enemy'

After many efforts, he was honored to receive a Certificate of Merit from the Minister of Public Security for 5 years of implementing Directive No. 47-CT/TW of the Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership in fire prevention and fighting and was honored to represent Nghe An youth to receive the Central Ly Tu Trong Award in 2023.

The man behind the silent victories

I met Captain Pham Thanh Nam - Deputy Captain of the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police Department, Nghe An Provincial Police on a hot summer day in Nam Dan district, when he and his teammates were creating a firebreak at Dai Hue mountain range in 2019. At that time, every summer, many people in Nghe An lived in anxiety about the problem of forest fires. Many areas such as Do Luong, Nghi Loc, Thanh Chuong continuously received false fire reports. To reduce that anxiety, in his role as Secretary of the Youth Union of the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police Department, Captain Pham Thanh Nam mobilized more than 200 union members and youth of the unit to coordinate with local forces to open a firebreak more than 2km long.

The firebreak model has over the years made an important contribution to fire prevention in key areas of the province. Photo: Thanh Quynh

This seems to have become a familiar job for him because over the years, in areas with high risk of fire, he and his teammates have regularly mobilized and directly coordinated to effectively implement this model. From here, it has contributed to changing people's awareness as well as forming good practices in fire prevention and fighting.

When work was over, he had the opportunity to open up about his fate in the profession. According to him, he is a son of the coastal land of Quynh Luu. Since childhood, he learned the style and way of life from his father - a People's Police officer. He tried hard to pass the entrance exam to the Fire Prevention and Fighting University. After graduating, in 2013, he was assigned to work at the Fire Prevention and Fighting and Rescue Police Department, Provincial Police. With his efforts and efforts to learn, he quickly approached the assigned tasks and was trusted by his teammates and superiors.

Captain Pham Thanh Nam - Deputy Captain of the Fire Prevention and Fighting and Rescue Police Department, Nghe An Provincial Police received a Certificate of Merit from the Standing Committee of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee awarded to party members who have excellently completed their tasks for 5 consecutive years (2018 - 2022). Photo: NVCC

Taking on the key task of advising and developing plans to prevent fire and explosion incidents, Captain Pham Thanh Nam regularly has to update and research new documents and regulations to proactively advise unit leaders on effectively implementing key firefighting plans. At the same time, he also develops plans to open firefighting practice classes for grassroots forces and civil defense forces in the province. This job sounds simple, but provincial-level drills often mobilize hundreds of people and dozens of vehicles to participate.

Although the scenario was pre-written, it was not easy to coordinate smoothly between professional and non-professional forces. The service team was under pressure, because it required precise coordination in every action of the commander, the narrator and the images recorded by the camera. There were cases that did not go as planned, forcing the commander to stay calm and skillful in handling the situation to help the exercise take place according to the scheduled time. And in those circumstances, teammates always appreciated Pham Thanh Nam's calmness and flexibility in solving the problem.

Firefighting and rescue drill at Vinh market. Photo: Quang An

Not only did Captain Pham Thanh Nam complete his staff work well, but in many cases he was also present at the scene to participate in the rescue process.

Remember the fire that broke out in a warehouse area of ​​nearly 2,000 square meters?²in the Vinh market area in 2018 made many small traders here restless. As soon as he received the news, Captain Pham Thanh Nam immediately reported and advised his superiors so that the provincial Fire Police force could mobilize 7 fire trucks and hundreds of officers and soldiers to the scene to put out the fire and evacuate assets and goods before the fire spread.

By 2:30 p.m. the same day, the fire was still not under control. The column of smoke from the fire rose tens of meters high. At this time, he advised the unit's leaders to continue mobilizing forces and vehicles to move goods, ensure security and order, continuously pump water from the warehouse roof and use hammers to break the wall to let the smoke escape outside. After many hours of fighting the "fire", the fire was completely extinguished.

That is just one of many memories in more than 10 years of working in the profession and 7 years of working as Deputy Team Leader for Captain Pham Thanh Nam. As the core force, the main force in firefighting and rescue work, the unit has made its mark by helping hundreds of people escape in fires. In 2022 alone, his unit directly rescued 42 people; searched and recovered 38 bodies of drowning and accident victims; the value of saved assets is estimated at hundreds of billions of VND.

Captain Pham Thanh Nam - Deputy Captain of the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police Department, Nghe An Provincial Police (left cover) participates in voluntary blood donation. Photo: NVCC

Bring good values ​​to the community

Located approximately 17km away from the center of Cam Muon commune (Que Phong district) as the crow flies, Huoi May village has 38 households of the Khmu ethnic group, 100% of which are poor households. Witnessing the deprivation of the children here, Captain Pham Thanh Nam, in his role as Secretary of the Youth Union of the Fire Prevention and Rescue Department, together with the union members and youth in the unit, stood up to donate and support a children's playground for Cam Muon 2 Primary School located in Huoi May village. Over the past year, the project has truly become a spiritual friend of the students in this remote area.

The volunteer footprints of Captain Pham Thanh Nam and the young people still leave their mark on the highland of Ky Son when last year he and the youth union members in the unit supported breeding cows for poor households in Muong Tip commune. And then the Winter and Spring volunteer programs with the amount of donations of more than 140 million VND also brought meaningful gifts to people in the difficult areas of the province.

As Secretary of the Youth Union of the Fire Prevention, Fighting and Rescue Police Department, Captain Pham Thanh Nam (second from right) and the unit's youth have organized many programs for people in difficult areas. Photo: NVCC

On the spiritual front, Captain Pham Thanh Nam and the youth union members of the Fire Prevention and Fighting and Rescue Police Department have coordinated to research and advise on the development of a set of "Guidelines for inspection and self-inspection of fire prevention, fighting and rescue safety". This set of guidelines has special significance in propaganda work, applicable to all agencies, organizations, businesses and people in Nghe An province to improve the effectiveness of fire prevention work right from the grassroots.

In his role as Secretary of the Youth Union, he organized and maintained 11 propaganda teams at the affiliated Youth Union branches, in which the branch secretaries were the team leaders to propagate, disseminate legal education and equip knowledge for more than 13,000 participants in the past year.

It can be seen that the fight against the "fire enemy" is always difficult, arduous and dangerous. However, with the efforts of a soldier tempered by fire, Captain Pham Thanh Nam and his comrades have added to the precious tradition and glorious history of the People's Public Security force in general and the Fire Prevention, Fighting, Rescue and Rescue Police in particular.

Thanh Quynh