The men met Łomża Mayor Mariusz Chrzanowski on Tuesday and received letters of congratulations for their actions during the incident on August 9.
"They proved that, despite not knowing one another before, they were able to work together extremely well," Chrzanowski said. "They did not remain indifferent. They reacted, and this is a heroic attitude that we want to reward and promote."
Three of the men stretched a blanket beneath the balcony after one of them brought it from a nearby apartment. A fourth called Poland's 112 emergency number before running downstairs to help.
Security camera footage showed the girl climbing over the balcony railing and moving toward an adjoining vacant apartment. People below tried to persuade her to climb back to safety.
When it became clear she might fall, three men climbed onto the terrace of a ground-floor apartment and stretched out the blanket. The girl then fell from a height of more than a dozen meters.
"The most important thing is that nothing happened to the child," rescuer Grzegorz Płoński said after seeing the surveillance footage.
Paweł Leszczyński of the State Fire Service in Łomża said the men had taken the best possible action in the circumstances.
"They showed incredible presence of mind, and that blanket definitely cushioned the fall," he said, adding that firefighters would have used a similar method.
The child was taken to the University Children’s Clinical Hospital in the regional capital Białystok. She suffered bruising but is in good condition and her life is not in danger. She remains under medical observation.
The girl’s 27-year-old mother was asleep in the apartment at the time and could reportedly be awakened only after the fall. A test showed a blood alcohol level of 0.07 percent.
She is expected to be charged on Wednesday with exposing a child to an immediate risk of death or serious injury. The offense carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.
Two separate initiatives have also been launched seeking the Medal for Sacrifice and Courage for the rescuers, a Polish state decoration awarded by the president to people who risk their lives to save others.
Source: radio.bialystok.pl