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.

Tim Pallas MP has congratulated Ikran Hassan & Joshua Fernandes and an anonymous young resident for their calls to triple zero in a family emergency.

They were among 51 Victorian students, aged between 5 and 16, praised for keeping calm under pressure and calling Victoria’s triple zero service to seek assistance.

Tim Pallas 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.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Emergency Services James Merlino:

“ESTA’s triple zero operators work under pressure to help Victorians in need, responding to nearly 7000 calls a day.”

“Victoria’s brave Junior Triple Zero Heroes remained remarkably cool, calm and collected and are shining examples of how preparing children for an emergency can saves lives.”

Quotes attributable to Tim Pallas:

“Ikran and Joshua from my Werribee electorate are true heroes; they kept calm under pressure and sought help when it was desperately needed. They are an example to young Victorians everywhere.”