Four honoured for courageous rescue attempts
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 28/01) - Circumstance put them in situations few people are prepared to deal with and they came through with shining colours.
Three Yellowknifers and one former city resident were honoured by the Alberta and Northwest Territories branch of the Royal Lifesaving Society of Canada for two different rescue attempts.
At a ceremony held Monday at the legislative assembly Wally LeMay, Roland Meadus, Dale Flesjer and Rick Kish were given the society's rescue commendation and lifesaving medal for merit.
By their actions all exemplified the society's motto: Whomsoever you see in distress, recognize in him a fellow man.
Meadus and Flesjer were first on the scene of a tragic accident on the Ingraham Trail July 31, 1999.
The two teens saw a car containing five of their classmates go down in a small lake just off the road. They rescued two passengers, and waived down Kish.
"I don't want to go through it again, but if I have to I'll know what to do," said Flesjer.
Now a resident of Newfoundland, Kish took control of the situation, diving repeatedly into the submerged vehicle. He pulled two more passengers from it, and made several more dives in an attempt to free the driver before hypothermia and exhaustion stopped him.
Both passengers Kish rescued died, something commissioner Glenna Hansen said did not diminish his heroism.
"It must surely have comforted their families that every effort was made to rescue their loved ones," Hansen said.
The society's medal of merit was the latest of three honours bestowed on LeMay for his rescue of a suicidal woman who had jumped off a Winnipeg bridge into the Red River in October 1999.
"I have been surprised by all the to do and hoopla that's been made over this," said LeMay following the ceremony. "I didn't think it was that big a deal at the time or after."
LeMay was about to sit down to a meal at a friends place when a man out walking his dog came to the door and asked that they call 911 because a woman was in the river.
In a bid to kill herself, the woman had jumped from a bridge. LeMay kicked off his cowboy boots and leapt into the 500 metre wide river. He swam out to the woman. She told him she wanted to be left alone to die. He stayed near her and tried to talk her out of it. When she tried to swim away he grabbed her by the collar and pulled her to shore.
He got a phone call from her last fall.
"It sounded like she had a bit of a speech prepared," he recalled. "She thanked me and told me her life was back on track and things were going well. It was nice to see she got a second chance."
