Star of Courage

• Awarded on: May 13, 1983
• Invested on: September 09, 1983

In a display of remarkable courage on 31 January 1981, eighteen-year-old Stephen Pomeroy gave his life in an attempt to aid a fellow worker who had fallen to the bottom of a reactor filled with nitrogen gas. The accident occurred at the Mildred Lake tarsands extraction plant in Alberta. Stephen noticed that his friend had collapsed inside the reactor, where he had gone to retrieve a tool, and immediately entered the enclosed area to assist. He was overcome by the noxious fumes as he dragged his co-worker toward safety. Unfortunately, efforts to revive them were in vain.