Star of Courage

• Awarded on: July 15, 1985
• Invested on: March 21, 1986

Firefighter Donald Thomas MacPherson, S.C.
Fire Chief John Jeremiah Nugent, S.C.
Star of Courage

On December 16, 1984, Fire Chief John Jeremiah Nugent and Firefighter Donald Thomas MacPherson of the Sydney Mines Fire Department, neither of whom had any training in water-related rescue, saved a ten-year-old boy from drowning in the freezing waters of Big Pond at Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia. The boy and his cousin, who unfortunately drowned before he could be rescued, attempted to cross from Florence to Sydney Mines across the barely-frozen surface. They fell into the icy water some 200 metres from shore. John Nugent led the rescue attempt, crawling out over the extremely thin ice, towing a rope. He broke through as he seized the then-unconscious boy and was unable to climb back onto the ice. Mr. Nugent was closely followed by Donald MacPherson, who, in an attempt to pull the two of them out, also fell through. Although a ladder was extended to them, they were unable to use it as their hands were too frozen to grasp the rungs. Rapidly failing in the below-freezing temperatures, all three were hauled into a small boat which had been pushed out onto the ice by other firefighters. Both men were treated in hospital for exposure and minor injuries; the boy, after being transferred to a Halifax hospital in critical condition, recovered completely.