Dominik Paillé rescued a woman and her child from a smoke-filled building in Richibucto, New Brunswick on February 16, 1989. Noticing that a store was on fire, Mr. Paillé tried to enter by the front door but found it was locked. He ran to a side door, opened it and, seeing thick smoke billowing from the basement, shouted to check if anyone was in the upstairs apartment. Hearing a woman's voice, he tried twice to climb the stairs but had to retreat because of the smoke. With a wet scarf over his face, Mr. Paillé managed to clamber up the stairs on this third attempt and bring the woman and child to safety.