Medal of Bravery

• Awarded on: May 7, 1984
• Invested on: July 09, 1984

Fire Chief Michel Bernier, M.B.
Alain Langlois, M.B.
Alain Parent, M.B.
Medal of Bravery

In the afternoon of 12 February 1983, Michel Bernier, Chief of the Pincourt Volunteer Fire Department, with Alain Langlois and Alain Parent, both of Pincourt, Quebec, saved a four-year-old girl from certain death. The girl and her friend were playing on the edge of the Ottawa River, when they broke through and the current swept them away. Sadly, the other child quickly drowned but the little girl clung to the ice, held up by the buoyancy of her down-filled snowsuit. Fire Chief Bernier arrived on the scene as a second rescue attempt failed. Seeing an aluminum boat lying nearby, he launched it with the assistance of Messrs. Langlois and Parent, who had volunteered to paddle out to the child. A short distance away one of the oars broke. Undaunted, they breasted the strong current with one oar and the handle of the broken one - while Fire Chief Bernier used his hands - and reached the child as she was about to disappear below the surface. Well aware of the danger of overturning, Fire Chief Bernier bent over the side of the boat, grasped her and pulled her on board. Through sheer determination and endurance, Messrs. Langlois and Parent steered the boat toward a waiting ambulance on the shore. The child survived the mishap.