Medal of Bravery

• Awarded on: April 5, 1988
• Invested on: August 19, 1988

At midday on April 13, 1987, a woman noticed smoke coming up through the floor vents of her house near Charlie Lake in northern British Columbia. When she opened the door to the basement she saw clouds of heavy black smoke and immediately closed it again before looking for her three- year-old son who was playing somewhere in the house. Unable to find him upstairs and afraid that he had been playing in the basement, she ran to the neighbours to ask for help. Kenneth Forest immediately returned with her to her house, by this time filled with dense smoke which was billowing out of all the windows. After kicking out one of the basement windows and being unable to see anything inside because of the smoke, Mr. Forest went around to the back door to attempt to enter the basement from the inside. Once in the house he heard crying, but was forced to crawl along the floor under the smoke in order to see. Finding the little boy in the kitchen he wrapped him in his shirt and carried him to safety. Within minutes the entire house was destroyed by the blaze.