Woman fire officer to get President’s Gallantry Medal

Meenakshi Vijayakumar, one of the country’s first woman fire officers, has been selected for the President’s Fire Service Medal for Gallantry 2013 apart from 11 others. The officer was chosen for her courageous act of saving a mother and son, who were stuck under the debris of a collapsed building in Triplicane in October 2012.

“We were a four-member team that went a few feet inside the huge pile of debris and rescued the mother Bharathi and son Sarathy. It was team effort. I thank god for this award,” the officer said. Meenakshi joined the Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services as a divisional fire officer in 2003. She is now the divisional fire officer of suburban Chennai.