Medal of Bravery

• Awarded on: February 28, 2013
• Invested on: October 04, 2013

Benoit Bourbonnais, M.B.
James Arthur Parker, M.B.
Medal of Bravery

On May 15, 2011, Benoit Bourbonnais and off-duty firefighter James Parker rescued a man from a burning apartment, in Longueuil, Quebec. Mr. Parker had been driving by when he noticed smoke coming from a second-floor window of the building. He yelled at the main floor residents to get out before running up the outside staircase to the burning apartment. He opened the door and crawled beneath the thick, black smoke. He located the tenant in one of the rooms and brought him outside. Braving the fire and smoke, Mr. Parker went back inside to search for other victims and, finding no one, made his way back out. He bumped into Mr. Bourbonnais who, despite the wall of smoke, had also entered when he saw the tenant run back inside. Mr. Bourbonnais grabbed the resisting man and, with Mr. Parker's help, pulled him outside.