An Owen Sound police officer has received the Police Medal for Bravery
Constable Patrick Rawn was awarded the Medal Thursday by the Ontario government for his life saving actions during the morning hours of August 10, 2015, when an arsonist started several houses on fire in Owen Sound.
He responded to more than three locations where houses were ablaze with citizens trapped or sleeping inside. Rawn assisted one woman and man through an open window to safety. He then noticed several occupants from the rear units of a complex trapped behind a wall of flames from a natural gas line that had ruptured and ignited.
Without special fire protection, he ran through the flames toward the trapped occupants and escorted them to safety and medical attention.
Rawn was then told that residents were unaccounted for within the row houses and he immediately went to locate and rescue them. He was driven back by heavy smoke and alerted firefighters to the possibility of a trapped person.
The suspected arsonist would eventually leave 60 Owen Sound residents homeless and property destroyed at five locations before dawn.
Constable Rawn's quick thinking and tireless heroics are credited with preventing any deaths or serious injuries.
