In its first announcement of 2023, the Carnegie Hero Fund is honored to recognize 15 civilians who risked serious injury or death to save others, including four passersby who entered unfamiliar burning homes to save their occupants, a man who was shot and paralyzed from the waist-down while attempting to save a store clerk from an armed assailant, and a father who drowned saving his toddler.
Each individual will receive the Carnegie Medal, North America’s highest honor for civilian heroism.
Among those saved by this quarter’s Medal recipients were four children, a 61-year-old man who was trapped in his wheelchair in the basement apartment of a burning building, a 97-year-old woman who could not unlock her front door to escape flames in her burning home, and a room full of senior citizen churchgoers attending a potluck where a man opened fire.
The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the U.S. and Canada to those who enter extreme danger while saving or attempting to save the lives of others. With this announcement, the Carnegie Medal has been awarded to 10,355 individuals since the inception of the Pittsburgh-based Fund in 1904.
Each of the recipients or their survivors will receive a financial grant. Throughout the 119 years since the Fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, more than $44 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance.
The awardees are:
Terrance A. Dea, deceased, Louisville, Tennessee
Christopher K. Burkett, deceased, Forsyth, Georgia
Emilyn Golden, West Vancouver, British Columbia
Gabriel Lucas Gardner, deceased, Spokane Valley, Washington
Kevin Conklin, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Roberto Y. Longoria, deceased, Phoenix
James W. Musgrove, Jr., Birmingham, Alabama
Chad W. Chichester, Midland, Michigan
Derek Winemiller, Kansas City, Missouri
Paul Galotti, Easthampton, Massachusetts
Nicholas L. Bostic, Lafayette, Indiana
Zachary Sjosward, Clifton, New Jersey
Kortnie Balls, Pocatello, Idaho
Jose M. Pichardo, Nashua, New Hampshire
Daniel Franz, Mahopac, New York
To nominate someone for the Carnegie Medal, complete a nomination form online or write to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, 436 Seventh Ave., Suite 1101, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. More information on the Carnegie Medal and the history of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission can be found at carnegiehero.org. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Terrance A. Dea, deceased
Terrance A. Dea, a 70-year-old retired sales manager of Louisville, Tennessee, drowned June 5, 2021, attempting to rescue an 18-year-old woman who was thrown from her jet ski into the Little River in Louisville. Emma R. Fila was negotiating a curve in the waterway and hit a concrete bridge support. The impact rendered her unconscious and threw her facedown in water that was 24 feet deep. In another party on a nearby boat, Dea responded, entering the river and swimming to Fila. Dea then became unresponsive in the water. Four others from another boat responded and brought Dea and Fila to Dea’s boat, where they performed CPR. They drove Dea’s boat to a nearby dock and continued attempts to revive them. Paramedics arrived and pronounced them dead; they had drowned.
Christopher K. Burkett, deceased
A 93-year-old woman, Shirley Treadwell, and her caretaker were inside an SUV that was stuck straddling a train track on Nov. 10, 2021, in Forsyth, Georgia. Christopher K. Burkett, 47, a production line supervisor who lived nearby, and his friend were repairing a fence when they heard the car kicking up gravel and the approaching train. They ran to the car’s front, passenger door, and with difficulty heaved it open. Due to a curve in the track, the 170-car freight train, which was approaching at 39 m.p.h., could only be spotted at a point 300 feet from the car. As the train neared, the friend moved away from the track, but Burkett stayed, working to free the 93-year-old. The train struck the vehicle, propelling it 100 feet. The women and Burkett suffered fatal injuries in the collision.
Emilyn Golden
A 15-year-old boy, who was autistic and nonverbal, drifted with the outgoing tide about 300 feet from a Burrard Inlet beach in West Vancouver, British Columbia, on Sept. 9. Emilyn Golden, a 34-year-old local artist, was at the beach when she learned of the boy’s struggle. Golden removed an outer layer of clothing and entered the dangerously cold water, swimming to the fully-clothed boy, who initially resisted her rescue efforts. Golden quickly formed a rapport with the boy and together they swam back toward shore, but the strong tide prevented them from making much progress. As the boy tired, Golden helped him remove some clothing and held to his shirt with one hand, keeping him above the surface of the water. A rescue boat responded and plucked the two from the waves, bringing them to safety at a nearby pier. The boy went to the hospital and was released later that day. Golden was treated at the scene for shock and hypothermia. She recovered without further medical treatment.
Gabriel Lucas Gardner, deceased
A father drowned June 26, 2020, saving his toddler daughter from the same fate. Kinzlee R. Gardner, 21 months, was wearing a life jacket in a kayak with her mother, about 10 feet from the bank of the Spokane River near Post Falls, Idaho, when an undertow upset the kayak, dumping Kinzlee and her mother into the water. Kinzlee’s mother pushed Kinzlee to the water’s surface, before the current submerged her and carried her away from the bank. It was like being sucked down a drain, the mother told the Hero Fund’s investigator. Kinzlee’s father, Gabriel Lucas Gardner, a 35-year-old laborer of Spokane Valley, Washington, immediately entered the 60-degree water and swam to the toddler. Grabbing her life jacket, he first attempted to hand her off to another man who had entered the water with him, but, struggling in the water, the man was returning to the bank. Gardner then swam 70 feet to another kayak piloted by Kinzlee’s 12-year-old brother, who took Kinzlee into his kayak. Gardner submerged and did not resurface. His body was found more than an hour later about 900 feet downriver.
Kevin Conklin
A local high school student was hospitalized after attempting the Aug. 4, 2020, water rescue of a 6-year-old boy who was playing in a flooded 5-foot ditch at a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, park and was swept into a 25-foot-long drain pipe that extended beneath a two-lane road. Kevin Conklin, 16, was nearby when the little boy submerged. Kevin immediately waded into the flood water, submerged, and tried to feel for the boy. After failing to find him, he entered deeper water, and in many attempts, submerged to try to find the boy. He, too, was swept into the pipe. Both boys tumbled into the stream at the other end of the pipe, the current carrying them downstream, where others helped them exit the water. The boy sustained bruising and recovered. Kevin was taken to the hospital by ambulance for bruises, pain to his wrist, and exposure to the cold water. He, too, recovered.
Roberto Y. Longoria, deceased
Roberto Y. Longoria, a 42-year-old tanker technician of Phoenix, died Aug. 29, 2021, while attempting to save his 32-year-old co-worker from suffocation inside a chemical tanker trailer in Avondale, Arizona. Jose Perez entered the trailer to try to fix a slow drain and became unresponsive. Longoria started to enter the trailer from its ceiling hatch, but then called 911 to report the incident, handed his phone to the truck driver to continue the call, retrieved a respirator mask from nearby, and then entered the trailer. Soon, he too, collapsed. Firefighters removed the men from the trailer; they died from exposure to hydrogen sulfide gas.
James W. Musgrove, Jr.
When shots rang out at a June 16 church potluck in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, James W. Musgrove, Jr., did not hesitate to subdue the shooter, a 70-year-old man armed with a semi-automatic handgun. The man fired three shots, killing three of the more than 20 senior citizens attending the potluck. Sitting closer to an exit, Musgrove, a 79-year-old Birmingham, Alabama, retired investigator, lifted a banquet chair and held it in front of him like a shield and ran toward the assailant. Musgrove released the chair and grabbed the assailant’s hand holding the gun and forced him to drop it. Holding the back of the assailant’s neck, Musgrove retrieved the gun and struck the assailant until he was subdued. He restrained the assailant until police arrived. At the time of the investigation, the assailant was awaiting trial for capital murder.
Chad W. Chichester
A 52-year-old engineer of Midland, Michigan, responded to a burning all-terrain vehicle on April 3 in Sherman Township, Michigan. Passenger Karleigh M. Zmikly, 23, remained inside the ATV as flames entered the passenger compartment and lit her clothing on fire. Chad W. Chichester was in Zmikly’s party in another ATV, when he witnessed the accident that resulted in the ATV overturning onto the driver’s side. Initially, flames and smoke precluded him from seeing Zmikly, but as he circled the ATV he saw her standing on the driver’s door reaching up toward the passenger’s window opening. At 5’1”, she could not reach the passenger’s door of the 6-foot-wide vehicle. Chichester reached through flames, grasped her under her arms and attempted to lift her out of the vehicle, but the synthetic material of his gloves was melting in the blistering heat causing his hands to slip. He stepped back from the vehicle, shook the gloves off his hands, and returned. While flames burned his hands and wrists, he reached into the vehicle again, grasped her in the same manner and pulled her from the ATV. Laying her on the ground, others at the scene instructed her to roll on the ground to extinguish the flames on her clothing. Others packed snow from the ground to put out the fire and moved her farther from the burning vehicle. Zmikly was flown by medical helicopter to a hospital for treatment of severe burns, requiring multiple surgeries. Chichester was taken by ambulance to the hospital for treatment of severe burns to his hands, which also required surgery.
Derek Winemiller
Derek Winemiller, a 38-year-old union carpenter from Kansas City, Missouri, was left paralyzed from the chest down after intervening in a Feb. 9, 2020, armed robbery at a neighborhood store. A man pointed a handgun at the store’s cashier, 38, and believing the man’s life was in danger, Winemiller, who was nearby, confronted the assailant, jammed the weapon and pushed the man against the wall. As they struggled, the assailant broke free and continued to shoot at Winemiller, who was ultimately shot at least seven times and sustained injuries to his bowels, heart, ribs, pelvic bone, scapula, thoracic vertebrae, and spinal cord. The assailant and a potential accomplice fled the store and have not been identified. Winemiller was hospitalized 19 days and underwent emergency surgery before spending two months in a rehabilitation hospital. At the time of the investigation, he had ongoing outpatient therapy and hoped to walk again.
Paul Galotti
Sixty-one-year-old David Martinez, who uses a wheelchair, was trapped in his Easthampton, Massachusetts, burning apartment after his bedroom caught fire and blocked his exit. A neighbor, Paul Galotti, 38, environmental coordinator, was alerted to the May 15 fire and responded to the three-story apartment building. Galotti entered the structure through the front door and opened the door to the basement shouting for anyone inside to respond. Through dense black smoke pouring from the doorway, Galotti heard Martinez respond that he was in a wheelchair and needed help. Galotti descended the stairs, but quickly could not breathe and returned outside to take in air. Galotti pulled his shirt over his mouth and nose and returned to the stairs, which he descended and then searched for Martinez, who was 12 feet from the stairs. Galotti lifted Martinez from his wheelchair, hoisted him over his shoulder and left the building.
Nicholas L. Bostic
A passerby on July 11 suffered from smoke inhalation, first- and second-degree burns, and a serious laceration to his arm, after jumping from a second-story window holding a 6-year-old girl to escape spreading and growing flames. Nicholas L. Bostic, a local pizza delivery man, 25, was driving in a residential neighborhood in Lafayette, Indiana, when he saw a burning home. He entered the home through the back door, calling out to determine if anyone was inside. Hearing nothing, he went upstairs and saw an 18-year-old woman with two 13-year-old girls and a toddler, 20 months old. Leading them outside, they told him the 6-year-old remained inside. He reentered the home and frantically searched the upstairs bedrooms as conditions worsened inside the home. As smoke filled the main level of the home, Bostic considered jumping through a window, but then heard the girl’s cries. Following them, he returned to the main level, which was filled with smoke and blistering heat. With no visibility, he found the girl, picked her up, and retreated to the upper level. He entered a burning bedroom and punched through a window with his fist. With the girl in his arms, he jumped through to the ground. The girl suffered an injury to her leg from the broken glass, but she recovered. Bostic was hospitalized for three days, but he, too, recovered.
Zachary Sjosward
Three men fishing on Sept. 13 in the Atlantic Ocean at a beach in Island Beach State Park in Seaside Park, New Jersey, encountered trouble when a rip current pulled two of them into deeper water. The men drifted apart and struggled to keep their heads above water. The third man, off-duty police officer Zachary Sjosward, 25, of Clifton, New Jersey, saw his friends struggling, and after collecting a bodyboard from a truck, entered the water with the board’s strap secured to his wrist. As he swam toward the closer man, who was about 85 feet from the beach in water at least 6 feet deep, a wave crashed over him and broke the bodyboard’s cord, ripping the board from him. Continuing without it, Sjosward reached the man and guided him into wadable water, where he went to the beach on his own. Sjosward swam to the second man, who by then, was motionless. Sjosward brought him to wadable water and then dragged him onto the beach. Arriving first responders took both men to a hospital, where they recovered.
Kortnie Balls
Kortnie Balls, a local 25-year-old delivery driver, on March 23, 2022, entered a burning Pocatello, Idaho, mobile home amid exploding oxygen tanks, dense black smoke that precluded visibility, and spreading flames to find 76-year-old Richard G. Sergi, who was badly burned. Despite Sergi outweighing Balls by more than 100 pounds, Balls pulled Sergi to the front door. Exiting the home as flames burned above their heads, Balls dragged Sergi partially outside where another man helped move Sergi fully onto the porch. Sergi’s injuries were extensive and he died the following day. Balls inhaled smoke, but she recovered.
Jose M. Pichardo
A 97-year-old woman was saved Oct. 1, 2021, from her burning home thanks to a passerby who responded. Jose M. Pichardo, a 41-year-old car salesman in Nashua, New Hampshire, was driving in a Nashua neighborhood when he saw flames issuing from the back of Shirley M. Buder’s home. Pichardo kicked down the locked, front door and crawled toward the sound of Buder’s voice, where he found her sitting in a chair in her living room. Telling her to remain in the chair, Pichardo dragged the chair to the front door and onto the home’s porch where another man assisted Pichardo in carrying Buder in the chair away from the house. Buder inhaled smoke, was hospitalized, and recovered in two days. The day after the fire, Pichardo had recovered from smoke inhalation.
Daniel Franz
On April 7, the driver of an SUV remained inside his car after it left a highway and struck a rock wall that separated the road from a reservoir in Carmel, New York. The accident left the car straddling the wall, which was about 1 foot tall at the road, but dropped 7 feet to an embankment adjacent to the water. A 31-year-old conservation officer was patrolling the area and came upon the wreckage with driver Stan R. Pelletier, 68, inside. Leaking fuel ignited and flames burned on the undercarriage. Officer Daniel Franz of Mahopac, New York, fully entered the car and grasped Pelletier under his arms and pulled, but one of his legs was trapped. Pulling again with more force, Pelletier’s leg came free and, backing out of the car, Franz dragged him across the center console and out the front, passenger door. Flames engulfed the vehicle and Franz attempted to block Pelletier from the intense heat by standing between the car and Pelletier. Other responders arrived and helped the man to the road, where he was taken by ambulance for treatment of severe injuries incurred in the accident. Franz was not injured.