OttawaWhen flames engulfed her home nearly a year ago and her youngest son couldn’t escape, Stephanie McDougall acted without hesitation. On Monday, her courage was officially recognized in a ceremony at an Ottawa fire station.Nearly a year after terrifying ordeal, Stephanie McDougall awarded with ‘challenge coin’Emma Weller · CBC News · Posted: Nov 10, 2025 4:54 PM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Stephanie McDougall braved thick smoke to reach her son as their townhouse burned on Dec. 3, 2024. Her courage was officially recognized Monday during a ceremony at an Ottawa fire station. (Joseph Tunney/CBC)When flames engulfed her home nearly a year ago and her youngest son couldn’t escape, Stephanie McDougall acted without hesitation.She crawled through the thick black smoke to reach the 11-year-old, who has a disability. “I knew that I had to be there for Malcolm. I couldn’t leave him there. I didn’t care about anything else,” she recalled about the night of Dec. 3, 2024.Her two older boys had made it out of the townhouse on Twyford Street, but firefighters had to rescue McDougall and her youngest son from the kitchen floor as the fire intensified. McDougall didn’t know if they’d make it out alive.”I was just praying and hoping that we would be rescued by someone,” she said. “I thought we were both going to die that day.”Ottawa’s fire department issues these ‘challenge coins’ to members of the public whose actions deserve special recognition. (Ottawa Fire Services)For her bravery, McDougall was presented Monday morning with a “challenge coin” at Fire Station 33 in Ottawa’s Hunt Club neighbourhood.”It’s a small token of our appreciation to … present those people with an insignia or a coin to say, ‘You’ve done something amazing and keep that up,’ and I think it just inspires others in the community as well,” said Ottawa Fire Services (OFS) Chief Paul Hutt at the ceremony. The night of the fire, OFS had received a report of an odour of natural gas near the three-storey townhome.When firefighters arrived they heard screams coming from the kitchen as smoke poured from the building. They forced their way inside the burning buidling and found McDougall and her son, now 12.Hutt said McDougall’s actions made the rescue possible. Ottawa Fire Services Chief Paul Hutt presented McDougall with a challenge coin in a ceremony on Monday. (Joseph Tunney/CBC)”This is an extreme example of someone putting themselves ahead of everyone else — putting their life on the line to save someone else,” said Coun. Riley Brockington, who pushed for the recognition. McDougall, 43 at the time of the fire, spent 17 days on life support after suffering serious burns. “Stephanie is a very humble person. She doesn’t believe that she’s done anything heroic, and I hope that through this challenge coin and this celebration that she realizes truly how special she is,” said her mother, Beth Conway. After the fire and McDougall’s recovery, the family of four moved into Conway’s one-bedroom apartment where they lived for nine months with curtains separating their single beds.Firefighters comb through the damaged townhome after the fire on Dec. 3, 2024. (Scott Stilborn/Ottawa Fire Services)McDougall’s townhouse on Twyford Street has since been restored and the family returned in September. McDougall’s sons attended Monday’s ceremony where her middle child, Cameron, 14, spoke on behalf of the family.”We’re all very proud of you, mom, and we all love you very much,” he said.ABOUT THE AUTHOREmma Weller is a reporter for CBC Ottawa and she’s also worked with CBC’s Your World Tonight. She can be reached at emma.weller@cbc.ca. With files from Joseph Tunney
Ottawa mother recognized for saving son from fire
