Driving to work last Thursday morning, rescue officers Mark Zammit and Sandro Muscat knew that the brewing storm would mean a busy day of rescues but they never fathomed they would end up being rescued themselves.

Chief assistance and rescue officer Kevin Pace was in the  Civil Protection Department control room, monitoring calls of people in distress and deploying personnel and fire engines across the country.

“On a busy day, we receive around 25 calls asking for help. During the first hours of Thursday, we had 250 calls to help people in distress,” Pace said.

“There were many people on the streets and many reported they were trapped in their cars. One of them was an elderly man in his van in a valley in Burmarrad.”

Muscat and Zammit had just completed a couple of rescue missions in the area and Pace asked the duo to head straight to help the elderly man.

“We drove the fire engine down the valley and tried to get as close to the man as we could,” said Muscat, who was in the driver’s seat. “But, at one point, we couldn’t go further and had to stop some 30 metres away from the van.”

The two recalled seeing the man inside the van but the strong water currents were rocking the van to and fro and the wheels were already completely submerged in water.

“The plan was to tie one end of a rope to the fire engine, then Sandro would walk towards the man and tie the other end of the rope to the van,” Zammit said.

That way, they would grab on to the rope in the strong currents and cross over to safety.

'I simply had to abandon the plan'

However, that initial plan failed when Muscat was more than halfway through to reach the elderly man.

“The rope got tangled in some steel rods that were submerged in the water,” Muscat recalled.

“At first, I thought the rods would prove helpful because they would give us more support but the rope got so tangled up that I couldn’t move it. I simply had to abandon the plan.”

That is when Muscat took the risk of ploughing through the water unsupported.

“I charged at the van and managed to grab on to it before the water currents could take me with them,” he said.

This meant Zammit lost contact with his colleague and it suddenly became extremely difficult to get Muscat and the man out of danger.

The rescue officers could not even communicate with one another because the van was far out in the valley. There was no way Muscat and the driver could make it safely to the other side, and they had to stay put while another plan was worked out.

'He was terrified'

Muscat admitted he started to get really scared at this point as the water rose to the van’s door hinges. But he could not let the elderly man see his fear. The man was still in the van and Muscat tried to keep him calm through the window.

“He told me he was terrified. He said he rarely gets scared but he was trembling with fear at that moment.”

Muscat managed to call the CPD control room using the elderly man’s mobile phone and informed Zammit of the situation. Zammit, who was still on the other side, realised they would not be able to do this alone. He took a video with his phone and sent the footage to the control room telling them the only way out was with the help of an AFM helicopter.

The officers stood stranded for about an hour before the helicopter arrived and, meanwhile, they had to grapple with another precarious situation.

Some locals had told them that the van was stuck on the edge of the valley, just inches away from a drop of around two or three storeys.

Due to the muddy waters, they could not identify where the edge was exactly but it was becoming increasingly clear that if the van somehow toppled over, it would send them spiralling down that valley.

“I could see floating logs coming at us and slam against the van. Any one of them could have tipped us over into the edge,” Muscat said.

However, the AFM helicopter arrived just in time to winch both the rescuer and the elderly man to safety.

“First, they winched the elderly man, and then it was Sandro’s turn,” Zammit said.

“They were lowered to the ground just across the valley, where I was waiting for them in the fire engine.

“And, as soon as he landed, the elderly man turned to me and said: ‘you should give your colleague a medal for what he did today’.”