Star of Courage

• Awarded on: April 5, 1988
• Invested on: August 19, 1988

At around 11:00 p.m. on January 13, 1987, in St-Cyrille, Quebec, Gisèle Gagnon saved her cousin from certain death by dragging him from a blazing fire. The young woman was sleeping in a second- storey room when she was awakened by her father's shouts from the ground floor. She immediately rushed downstairs, where she saw a fire raging. Too agitated to put out the flames, she was about to run outside with the other family members when she remembered that her young cousin was still sleeping upstairs. Although the fire had spread to the top of the stairs she disregarded the flames and thick smoke and went up to find him. When she reached the second floor she called out to her cousin but he did not answer, so she went into the bedroom and, by groping around, managed to find him. She grabbed him by the waist and carried him to safety. In rescuing her cousin Gisèle Gagnon suffered severe burns which required her to be hospitalized.