Medal of Bravery

• Awarded on: July 20, 1972
• Invested on: June 08, 1973

Tony Guimond, M.B.
Raymond Kellerman, M.B.
Medal of Bravery

Tony Guimond, 36, and Raymond Kellerman, 41, tunnelled into a huge pile of logs at a pulp mill at Hinton, Alberta, to rescue another worker who was trapped underneath. The trapped man was at work the evening of February 9, 1967, in the woodyard section of North Western Pulp and Power Limited when a 50 foot-high pile of logs toppled burying him. A crane was quickly brought into position over the area with a view to removing the logs, but it soon became evident that this could result in a further slide that might be fatal. Tony Guimond and Raymond Kellerman then began working their way through the maze of logs towards the spot where they could hear the victim respond to their shouts. Unable to gain access to the injured man they returned to the surface for a power saw. For two and a half hours, as the two men cut their way into the great pile of logs, they were aware that one wrong move could cause the stack to settle suddenly or bring more logs down on them and the man they were trying to reach. In the end, they succeeded in bringing the injured man out to the surface where an ambulance was standing by to take him to the hospital.