I can't understand it either. The beginning and end are OK, and it's clear that the main message is this 'The five firemen ... were highly praised'. However, something goes very wrong in the middle of the sentence. The nine words in the middle don't make a lot of sense. A logical middle section might be a relative clause something like 'who had rescued the people from the fire' . For example: 'The five firemen who had rescued the people from the fire were highly praised by the director.' I suggest you go back to the original source of this sentence and check it again.

The five firemen were highly praised because they rescued some people from a fire. The director told the firemen to rescue the people. It was not a very good sentence, so it is understandable that it was confusing for you. I hope my re-wording of the sentence is helpful.

I think this sentence is not correct the correct will be ''The five firemen and the director had to rescue the people in the fire , they were highly praised.'' Check them out, make total sense. If you have doubt about the meaning of the words try to look in oxford dictionary or ask me here.