Dubai: Dubai Police on Sunday honoured a Pakistani water tanker driver and an off duty policeman for their heroic effort to rescue a motorist trapped inside a burning vehicle on a highway.
The police officer, Sergeant Muhammad Ahmad Mahfouz, a member of the Difficult Missions unit of the General Department of Transport and Rescue, helped save the Emirati driver whose 4x4 vehicle caught fire on Mohammad Bin Zayed Road.
The Pakistani driver, Hidayatullah Habib Shah, stopped his water tanker and used it to extinguish the fire.
Both rescued the Emirati man who had an accident after he fell unconscious due to a severe diabetes shock and crashed into another vehicle.
Major General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, honoured the two men on Sunday.
“It is a heroic act by the policeman who was off duty and stopped to rescue the driver. The truck driver didn’t hesitate and stopped his vehicle to help the policeman and extract the injured driver and extinguish the fire,” Major General Al Merri said.
The policeman was granted a medal of honour and the Pakistani received a certificate of appreciation.
Meanwhile, Mahfouz said that he was heading to his house in Abu Dhabi with his 17-year-old son when he saw a truck on the side of the road and 500 metres away, a Nissan Patrol which had caught fire.
“I have been working in the rescue department for 28 years and I know there is something wrong, when my son told me that he can see someone inside the car, I stopped immediately and went to help,” Mahfouz said.
He said that the Emirati driver was unconscious and his eyes were open.
“I thought he was in coma or under shock. I was lucky when a water tanker stopped near me and the driver took the hose and started extinguishing the fire. I took the motorist out of the car with the help of other people who gathered there,” he added.
