Fifty-one brave young Victorians have been honoured today for their heroic and life-saving actions in the face of an emergency at the 13th annual Junior Triple Zero Hero Awards.
Member for Dandenong, Gabrielle Williams, has congratulated Samaria Samuel. 13-year-old Samaria was home alone when she interrupted a burglary. She remained very calm and was able to provide excellent details to our operator until police arrived.
She was one of 51 Victorian students, aged between five and 16, praised for keeping calm under pressure and calling Victoria’s triple zero service to seek assistance.
Ms Williams said these stories of bravery are a perfect reminder to all Victorians about the importance of teaching children how to identify, confidently react to and report legitimate emergencies by calling triple zero.
The Junior Triple Zero Heroes were nominated by ESTA’s Triple Zero operators.
ESTA, Victoria’s emergency communications agency receives emergency calls for the CFA, MFB, Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria and Victoria State Emergency Service. Operators work 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
In 2015–16, ESTA answered about 2.5 million calls for assistance across Victoria, this is an average of almost 7000 calls each day or a call every 12 seconds.