Medal of Bravery

• Awarded on: April 6, 1981
• Invested on: June 19, 1981

On 26 February 1980, George Murray Wallace, a Gas Plant Operator at the Gas Trunkline Compressor Station in Princess, Alberta saved the life of a co-worker in a valiant rescue. A gas well exploded at the station. So tremendous was the explosion that it sent an earth tremor some 24 kilometres away, set a fire that generated temperatures of 3,000o Farenheit and shot flames up to 300 metres in the air. People ran for their lives. The light was blinding, the terrain slippery, the oxygen was quickly devoured by the fire and the roar of the gas was tremendous. Mr. Wallace saw the victim staggering then collapsing some 50 metres from the blast site. At the risk of his life, Mr. Wallace, struggling against the strong wind caused by the fire drawing air to the site of the explosion, ran to his colleague, pulled him up and assisted him to relative shelter until a vehicle could rush him to a hospital to tend to very severe burns.