David Gordon Cheverie - Star of Courage Citation

Star of Courage Citation

Early on the morning of March 10, 1986, Cst. David Cheverie, of the Charlottetown Police Department, rescued a man from a house fire in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. To do so, he had to enter the downstairs apartment of the house four times because the smoke and heat were such that he could not breathe. He had had no training in fire rescue and was aware that highly explosive oxygen tanks were in the apartment. Nevertheless, he entered voluntarily, crawling on his stomach into the heart of the main fire. Cst. Cheverie was hampered by extremely poor visibility and heat so intense that paper on the floor ignited spontaneously. His own clothes caught fire. However, persevering, he located the man and carried him to safety. Once outside, Cst. Cheverie gave artificial respiration to the man, who was then taken to hospital for treatment.