Mohamed Dirshe (20) jumped into a burning house in Svolvær to save an eight years old boy in December. Now he is awarded with Carnegies gold medal.
It was six months ago in a cold December night in Svolvær, Norway. Mohamed was doing homework in the living room of the house where he lives with his siblings and mother. He smelled smoke coming from downstairs before he heard children crying and screming. Then he realized that there was a fire, so he woke everyone in the family and took them out.
When they went out, he saw the bedroom window on the ground floor was broken. He first helped out an 11-year-old boy who said that his 8-year-old little brother was left in the bedroom.
The boy was crying, and the older brother of the boy broke the window with his own hands. Then Mohamed jumped in through the window.
He saw almost nothing and used his mobile phone to illuminate the room filled with smoke. Eventually he found the little boy he was lying on the bed. He was unconscious and Mohamed carried him away to the window.
Bed linen and clothes had melted on the head and body of the eight-year-old, according to NRK.
The little boy eventually was taken care at Haukeland Hospital in Bergen and has been through extensive operations.
-Entering into a burning house requires something extraordinary. I am touched when someone puts his own life in danger for saving others, says Tom Cato Karlsen, county governor of Nordland while awarding Mohamed with Carnegies medal.
With this, Mohammed becomes the 15th in Norway who got Carnegie’s medal in gold, and the fifth in Nordland, according to NRK.
The medal is awarded for the most successful rescue work where there is a particularly high risk to one’s own life, or several are saved under difficult conditions.
Mohamed: Nothing Special and No Need for Special Attention
-I didn’t think anything special. I knew there was a child in there and then I went in. The other boy broke the glass and actually got more damage than me. If he hadn’t shouted so loudly, I wouldn’t have known that there was a fire going under me, Dirshe said to NRK.
He also noted that he does not want any attention.
-I do not like others to call me a hero. I have contact with the family who are in Bergen, and I hope we can keep in touch with them. They have invited us to visit there, says Mohamed.
