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Police Officers Honored with Bravery Medal

Friday, 23 November 2012 at 10:26

Two Woodstock Police officers are amongst a select group of first responders in the history of Ontario. Police Sargent Neil Butler, and Constable Richard Sziklai (in photo) were awarded the Ontario Medal for Police Bravery in Toronto last night. They received the medal from Lieutenant Governor, David Onley, for their role in helping save an elderly woman from her collapsing apartment in the Victoria St. Explosion in March of 2011. Butler tells Heart FM why that situation was different for them. "We don't receive training for high angle rescues and assisting people off balconies and going into collapsed buildings. It's something that we receive absolutely no training in. So we were really just flying by the seat of our pants." Butler and Sziklai are now in a group of only 230 police officers who have received the medal since 1977. However, Butler says all first responders that day acted heroically. "There was a whole group of first responders there that day, that all acted heroically and all deserve recognition as a group. The police department and the fire department acted heroically." Unfortunately, two elderly residents died in the apartment explosion that day, and a Woodstock firefighter suffered a broken leg.

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