Star of Courage

• Awarded on: July 25, 1977
• Invested on: December 02, 1977

Patrick Harrington, aged seventy-seven, was asphyxiated after rousing tenants during a fire which levelled a three-storey rooming house in the town in the early hours of 6 March 1976. Smoke had made the hallway of the ground floor impassable, and when Mr. Harrington became aware of the situation he left his room on the second floor to knock on the doors of other occupants. Awakened by the noise, these escaped down hallways and through the windows. The rescuer persisted despite heat and smoke and alerted others by activating a manual fire alarm; but in the process he was trapped and could not himself escape.