Medal of Bravery
Awarded on: 1983-09-26
Invested on: 1983-12-09
Shortly after midnight on Valentine's Day 1982, eighteen-year-old Charles Jackson, on leaving his girlfriend's Edmonton residence, noticed flames escaping through a window of the house next door. He asked her to call the Fire Department, hurried over and yelled inside the front entrance. The occupant came staggering through the thick smoke and, with Charles' persistence, finally agreed to proceed to the Damkar residence. When told that a family of four occupied the basement apartment Charles ran to a side door, but heat and smoke drove him back. Undaunted, he broke a basement window, lowered himself into the apartment and made his way with difficulty through the smoke, finding the parents and children in the living-room, confused and unsure of their predicament. He led the children to the window and lifted them out. Though the smoke was thickening rapidly, an unidentified man entered and assisted Charles in pushing the woman to safety, followed by her husband. By that time Mr. Jackson was suffering from smoke inhalation and had to be helped outside.