Medal of Bravery

• Awarded on: February 13, 1997
• Invested on: December 05, 1997

On September 9, 1995, with complete disregard for his own safety, seventeen-year-old Ashford Penner saved his one-year-old nephew from a house fire that spread through their home in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan. Alerted to the fire, Mr. Penner ran upstairs with his mother to wake up the household, then grabbed three children and led them out of the building. Once he and nine other occupants had escaped the burning house, he realized that a baby was still inside. He raced back in, jumped through the flames at the bottom of the stairs and ran to the child. Knowing that he could not go back down the stairs that were then completely engulfed in smoke and flames, he wrapped the baby in his coat and, covering his own head, crashed through a second-storey window, landing safely on the ground below.