Joel Leal Filipe helped to save Norberto Crisostomo and Frank Conroy from an impending explosion, Etobicoke, Ontario, September 11, 1995. Crisostomo, 52, and Conroy, 38, were inside an excavation beneath a city street, working on a natural gas line. A massive eruption of gas under high pressure in the line blew them, and the protective cage in which they worked, out of the excavation and onto the street. They remained in the cage, badly injured, as the gas vented loudly and forcefully nearby, blowing debris high into the air. The men’s foreman, Filipe, 39, had been standing near the excavation when the blast knocked him backward. After running from the site to call help, Filipe returned. Seeing Crisostomo inside the cage, he ran into the escaping gas and, joined by two other men, grasped Crisostomo and removed him to a point across the street. Filipe then returned toward the excavation and helped two men remove Conroy to safety. As gas continued to blow from the excavation, the immediate vicinity, containing two filling stations, was evacuated. Crisostomo and Conroy required extensive hospitalization for severe injury.
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