Medal of Bravery

• Awarded on: June 26, 1989
• Invested on: December 11, 1989

Early in the evening of April 1, 1987, a fire broke out in the copper mine at Murdochville, Quebec. The smoke and heat soon made the situation dangerous for the miners underground. In the twenty- four hours which followed, Mr. Denis Minville, foreman of the old part of the mine, was everywhere at once. He encouraged his men to go to the lunch rooms according to the established fire procedure, tried to find two men who were missing, helped a miner who was overcome by smoke to reach one of the lunch rooms, maintained communication with the surface, made rounds to judge the seriousness of the situation and going back and forth four times, saved twenty men from a smoke- filled lunch room.