During the night of January 20, 1990, in Ste-Émilie de l'Énergie, Quebec, Sylvain Dumais saved from certain death a father and his child who were trapped in their burning house. The woman of the house awoke, discovered the fire and went to the neighbours' for help while her husband and little girl, too weak to leave, remained in the house. Following a vain attempt, Mr. Dumais managed, on his second try, to climb through the victims' bedroom window. Crawling on the floor because of the thick smoke, he found the victims and carried the girl outside before going back in to drag the semi- conscious man to the window. Mr. Dumais then took the little girl to his house and returned to rescue the man.