Carnegie Medal awarded to 20 for extraordinary civilian heroism

Posted on by Jewels Phraner

heroismPITTSBURGH, PA, March 22, 2017—Making its first awards of 2017, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission today announced that 20 individuals are being given the Carnegie Medal in recognition of their acts of outstanding civilian heroism.  The medal is awarded throughout the United States and Canada to those who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.   Three of the awardees announced today died in the performance of their heroic acts.

The heroes announced today bring to 9,934 the total number of awardees since the Pittsburgh-based Fund’s inception in 1904.  Commission Chair Mark Laskow stated that each of the awardees or their survivors will also receive a financial grant.  Throughout the 113 years since the Fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, $38.9 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance.

The awardees are:

To nominate someone for the CARNEGIE MEDAL, write the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, 436 Seventh Avenue, Suite 1101, Pittsburgh, PA 15219; call 1-800-447-8900 (toll free); or email carnegiehero@carnegiehero.org. More information on the Carnegie Medal and the history of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission can be found at carnegiehero.org. Find us on Facebook or Twitter.

KRYSTAL ASHLEY SALAZAR

Burleson, Texas

Krystal Ashley Salazar attempted to save Zenola M. Jenkins from drowning, Burleson, Texas, November 27, 2015. At night, Jenkins, 76, remained in the driver’s seat of her car, which was stranded by floodwaters at the guide rail of a low bridge spanning Deer Creek. On duty, Salazar, 26, sheriff’s deputy, responded to the scene. She directed that firefighters be dispatched but concluded that the rising floodwaters afforded insufficient time for their arrival. After removing items of her gear, including her radio, she started to wade to the car, which was about 100 feet into the floodwaters. Water depth increased as she progressed, and she encountered a very swift current. In water about 4 feet deep, she lost her footing in the current and was washed over the guide rail. Unable to swim against the current, she was swept about a quarter-mile downstream, to where she was able to cling to a tree along the creek bank. Rescued by firefighters about two hours later, she required hospital treatment for abrasions and bruising, and she recovered. Jenkins’s car was also swept off the bridge and carried downstream. She drowned. 87881-9915

ROBERT HART MORGAN

CONNOR WILLIAM QUICK

Loveland, Colorado

Robert Hart Morgan saved Annaliese S. Vucich from drowning, and Connor William Quick attempted to locate a second victim, Loveland, Colorado, November 28, 2015. At night, Vucich, 22, remained in the driver’s seat of her car after it entered Lake Loveland and began to submerge in water 7 feet deep at a point about 75 feet from the bank. Morgan and Quick, both 18-year-old college students, were traveling nearby and witnessed the accident. They descended to the edge of the water, where Morgan removed his outer attire. Despite an air temperature of about 19 degrees and the water near freezing, he entered the lake and waded and swam to the passenger side of the car. Unable to open the front door, Morgan broke out the door’s window with his elbow. Water rushed into the vehicle and began to fill the passenger compartment. When Morgan then leaned through the window, Vucich grasped him by the neck. Backing, Morgan pulled her from the car, towed her to wadable water, and then carried her from the lake. Vucich called out another person’s name, leading Morgan and Quick to conclude that the car was still occupied. As Morgan was too cold to return to the vehicle, Quick, also having removed some outer attire, waded and swam out to the car, which was then nearly fully submerged. He entered it feet first through the broken-out window and, holding to an interior handle, searched for any other victims. After surfacing for air, he repeated the attempt before returning to the bank. Responding firefighters also searched the car, but it turned out to be unoccupied. Vucich, Morgan, and Quick required hospital treatment for cold water exposure, Morgan and Quick sustaining other minor injuries. They recovered. 87918-9916 / 87919-9917

JEROMY E. RICHARDSON, deceased

Whitwell, Tennessee

Jeromy E. Richardson died attempting to save Christopher S. Hurt from drowning, Whitwell, Tennessee, July 16, 2015. Hurt, 23, was swept over a low-head dam spanning the Sequatchie River and became caught in the rolling boil of water at its base. In another party at the scene, Richardson, 35, iron worker, was fishing from the bank. He entered the water below the dam and attempted to reach Hurt but then returned to the bank and made his way to the top of a concrete structure at the end of the dam. Taking a board with him, he stepped down to the top of the dam and slid his feet along it to a point closer to Hurt. He extended the board to Hurt but then lost his footing and fell into the boil. Both he and Hurt submerged. Hurt’s body was recovered from the river the next day, and Richardson’s body two days later. They had drowned. 87575-9920

SHANE S. MITCHELL

LISA MISSANA

Tampa, Florida

Shane S. Mitchell and Lisa Missana saved Marla B. Zick from drowning, Tampa, Florida, March 31, 2016. Zick, 26, remained in the driver’s seat of her car after it left the highway, went down an embankment, and entered a retention pond. Upright, the car drifted to a point about 80 feet from the bank and then submerged in water about 10 feet deep. Mitchell, 32, carpenter, was driving nearby and witnessed the accident. He drove to a point on the bank opposite the car and then removed his shoes, entered the water, and swam to the vehicle. Submerging repeatedly, he was unsuccessful in attempts to open the car’s driver’s door and to release Zick’s safety belt, which he reached through the open window of that door. Visibility was severely compromised in the murky water. About that time, another motorist who had driven upon the scene, Missana, 47, administrator, also swam out to the car, but from a closer bank. She too dove repeatedly to access and free Zick and was also unsuccessful. While she swam to the bank for a cutting tool, Mitchell submerged again, released Zick’s safety belt, and resurfaced. Missana returned, and together she and Mitchell then dove to the car and removed Zick, who was unconscious, through the window. Surfacing, they swam with her the 30 feet to the nearer bank, where others helped them lift her from the water. Zick required hospitalization, but she recovered. Mitchell and Missana were nearly exhausted, and Missana bruised an arm and required treatment for ear pain. They too recovered. 88184-9918 / 88183-9919

STEVEN MICHAEL PAULUS

Madisonville, Louisiana

Steven Michael Paulus saved Alecia K. Lee and Kala N. Perkins from burning, Metairie, Louisiana, February 19, 2016. Lee, 20, was in the driver’s seat, and Perkins, 18, in the passenger seat, of a pickup truck that was stalled on a bridge when it was struck from behind by a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed. Its rear end demolished and aflame, the pickup came to rest with its passenger side against the bridge’s parapet. On duty, Paulus, 43, state trooper, drove upon the scene. He approached the driver’s door of the pickup but found it jammed shut. With 3-foot flames issuing from the wreckage just behind the cab, in the area of the fuel tank, Paulus worked to force the door open. He then reached inside, grasped Lee, and aided her from the vehicle, handing her over to another motorist who had responded. When Paulus told Perkins, who was dazed, that she had to leave the vehicle, Perkins attempted to open the blocked passenger door. Paulus then extended most of his body into the pickup through the driver’s doorway. He grasped Perkins, pulled her across the driver’s seat, and backed from the pickup, dragging her. Perkins fell to the pavement there, and Paulus helped her to her feet. They left the immediate vicinity of the truck, flames shortly entering its passenger compartment. Lee and Perkins both required hospital treatment for their injuries. 88103-9921

GEORGE A. HEATH, deceased

Taunton, Massachusetts

George A. Heath died after helping to rescue Sheenah Savoy from assault, Taunton, Massachusetts, May 10, 2016. Savoy, 26, was at work in a mall restaurant when an enraged man entered and approached her, grabbed a steak knife from her hand, and started to stab her repeatedly. As she ran screaming toward the nearby bar, the assailant chased her and continued his attack on her. A diner, Heath, 56, teacher, and his wife were seated at the bar. Heath stood and pushed Savoy to the floor and then clutched the assailant, who was larger than him. As Heath crouched and tried to pin the assailant’s arms to his sides, the assailant stabbed him in the head. Another restaurant patron, an off-duty sheriff’s deputy, shot and fatally wounded the assailant. Savoy required hospitalization for treatment of serious stab wounds. Heath too was taken to the hospital, where he died shortly of his wound. 88275-9922

JASON BARNES

Westminster, Maryland

Jason Barnes helped to save Jamie E. Knight from drowning, Ellicott City, Maryland, July 30, 2016. Knight, 29, was driving a car down a sloped street in a commercial district near the end of a two-hour torrential rainfall that created a flash flood covering the roadway and sidewalks. Several vehicles that had been parked in the vicinity were washed away by the raging current. From the raised entryway of a building just off the sidewalk at the scene, Barnes, 36, business operator, saw Knight approach. He stepped into knee-deep water on the sidewalk to direct her to the near curb, but the current knocked him from his feet and swept him several feet away. He regained his footing and returned to the entryway as Knight angled her car to the curb. Barnes and three other men at the scene formed a human chain, Barnes at the far end, that extended from the entry toward the car, but Barnes’s reach fell 3 feet short of the car. After Knight climbed partially through the window of the passenger door, Barnes released from the chain and waded to the car, briefly losing his footing in the current, which struck the car forcefully and gushed up along its sides. He lifted and carried Knight to the others in the chain and helped her to the entryway. Barnes recovered from cuts to his hands, feet, and torso. 88509-9923

JOSEPH B. HAMBLIN

Washington, Utah

Joseph B. Hamblin rescued a woman from a runaway vehicle, St. George, Utah, March 31, 2016. The woman was in the driver’s seat of a pickup truck that was moving slowly and erratically on a four-lane highway through a commercial district. After striking a curb, the truck turned toward the center turning lane at about 15 m.p.h. Headed in the same direction in his vehicle, Hamblin, 36, unemployed truck driver, saw that the woman was slumped over in her seat. He pulled off the roadway and, despite wearing a medical boot because of recent foot surgery, ran onto the highway after the truck. Reaching its driver’s side, he stepped onto the running board and grabbed the steering wheel through the open window of the driver’s door. Hamblin guided the truck along the turning lane for more than 100 feet and then, as opposing traffic allowed, steered it across two lanes into a parking lot. There, he put the truck into park and helped a responding police officer remove the woman to the pavement, where they worked to revive her. The woman was taken to the hospital, and Hamblin, whose affected foot was bleeding heavily, also sought medical treatment. He recovered. 88303-9924

STEVEN L. SPURLING

St. Charles, Illinois

Steven L. Spurling rescued a woman from assault, St. Charles, Illinois, May 3, 2016. A 55-year-old woman fled from her house to escape an assault by her husband. Walking nearby, Spurling, 50, financial sales executive, and his wife saw that the woman was bloodied and distressed. When they went to her driveway to aid her, she told them that her husband was armed. The husband then approached, and Spurling positioned himself between him and the woman although he did not then see a gun. As the woman walked away from the property, the husband followed her, with Spurling just behind him, calling 911. Producing a handgun, the husband shot repeatedly at the woman from a distance of about 20 feet but did not strike her. Spurling lunged at and tackled the assailant to the ground as the woman ran to a neighbor’s house. He put a chokehold on the assailant, took the gun and threw it from his reach, and held him down until police responded shortly and arrested him. The woman required hospitalization for treatment of her injuries. 88336-9925

TIMOTHY CARPENTER

Cincinnati, Ohio

Timothy Carpenter attempted to rescue Patricia Hummons from assault, Cincinnati, Ohio, January 18, 2015. Hummons, 60, was seated in her wheelchair on a walkway outside the apartment building where she lived when a man approached her from behind and without provocation began to stab her repeatedly. Carpenter, 48, pastor, was leaving the building and saw the assailant striking Hummons. He shouted as he approached them, the assailant then pulling Hummons from her wheelchair to the walkway. As Carpenter knelt to tend to Hummons, the assailant stabbed him underneath the chin from behind. Carpenter stood and was stabbed again, in the abdomen. He grabbed the knife, breaking it in two and retaining the blade. The men struggled, during which Carpenter delivered defensive strikes with the blade against the assailant, inflicting injury. The struggle took them to the ground, where Carpenter threw the blade aside and held the assailant down until police arrived and arrested him. Hummons died at the scene of her injuries. Carpenter required hospital treatment, including sutures, for his stab wounds and lacerations, and he recovered. 87167-9926

ERIK BREITWIESER

Manorville, New York

Erik Breitwieser saved Edmund Soledad-Reyes from burning, Southampton, New York, November 14, 2015. Unresponsive, Soledad-Reyes, 21, remained in the driver’s seat of his coupe after a nighttime accident in which the vehicle overturned and its front end caught fire. Responding to the scene, Breitwieser, 35, police officer, approached the driver’s side of the car and went to his hands and knees on the pavement. He used a baton to break out the window of the driver’s door and then, despite flames about 4 feet high issuing from the engine area and smaller flames inside the passenger compartment at the pedals, reached inside and grasped Soledad-Reyes by the shirt. He tugged once, but Soledad-Reyes did not move. Realizing that his safety belt was engaged, Breitwieser went to his stomach, extended his upper body into the vehicle, and cut the belt with a knife. He then pulled Soledad-Reyes to him and, dragging him, backed from the vehicle to safety. Soledad-Reyes required hospital treatment for his injuries, and Breitwieser coughed for two days after the rescue. He fully recovered. 87937-9927

JUSTIN SWEET

San Diego, California

Justin Sweet helped to save Christopher C. Phillips from drowning, Coos Bay, Oregon, September 13, 2014. Phillips, 19, jumped from a steep cliff into the Pacific Ocean and had trouble swimming in the rough, cold surf as he was swept into a small cove along the rocky shore. A hiker, Sweet, 23, carpenter, witnessed Phillips jump. He climbed partially down the cliff as Phillips was washed against rocks and then floated motionless. Sweet removed his outer clothing, jumped into the water, and swam to Phillips. He grabbed him and swam to a large rock, tiring as he tried repeatedly to remove Phillips from the water, waves buffeting them. Another man joined them and helped Sweet lift Phillips onto the rock, which was about 10 feet from the bank of the cove. As Sweet and the man worked to revive Phillips, others at the scene threw life jackets to the rock to equip Sweet and Phillips. Sweet with Phillips then re-entered the water and with help from those on the bank maneuvered Phillips to the bank and from the water. Phillips was lifted from the scene by a Coast Guard helicopter and taken to the hospital for treatment. He recovered. Sweet was treated at the scene for cuts on his legs, hands, and feet, and he too recovered. 88151-9928

SANFORD HARLING III, deceased

Norristown, Pennsylvania

Sanford Harling III died attempting to rescue Sanford Harling, Jr., from burning, Norristown, Pennsylvania, February 5, 2016. Sanford Harling, Jr., 58, who required the use of a walker, was on the second floor of his family’s duplex unit after fire broke out in the living room, on the first floor. He alerted family members, including his son, Sanford, 12, student, who then fled the structure, but flames grew to block Harling’s access to the first floor. Indicating to those outside the rear of the house that he was returning for his father, Sanford re-entered the structure through its back door. Harling, meanwhile, went to a second-floor window on the side of the house and dropped from it to the ground, which was grassy there. He sustained significant injury, which required hospitalization. When conditions permitted, firefighters entered the house and found Sanford on the first floor. He had died of smoke inhalation and thermal burns. 88049-9929

RICHARD DAVID GREENO

Williamsport, Ohio

LISA MCNAIRY

Circleville, Ohio

Richard David Greeno and Lisa McNairy rescued Charles C. Rhodes from burning, Circleville, Ohio, October 16, 2015. Rhodes, 66, who required a cane to walk, was in the lower level of the split-level house where he was residing after fire broke out at night in the attached, adjacent garage, engulfing it. Asleep on an upper level of the house, Greeno, 40, disabled maintenance man, was awakened to the fire by a next-door neighbor, McNairy, 50, retail associate, who discovered it. Greeno exited the house through the back door but re-entered, through the front door, for Rhodes. Dense smoke forced him out for air. After breaking a lower-level window to vent the smoke, Greeno re-entered through the front door and, crawling, advanced about 12 feet to the stairs extending to the lower level and descended them. Flames by then were entering the lower level from the garage, and heat was intense. Rhodes had crawled toward the stairs, and Greeno located him a few feet from them. Meanwhile, McNairy had entered the house through the back door to check on its other occupants and then, responding to the front of the house, learned that Rhodes was still inside. She too entered through the front door and was repulsed by dense smoke but after repeated attempts crawled to the stairs, meeting up with Greeno and Rhodes there. She and Greeno dragged Rhodes from the stairs to the front door and out of the house, the lower level of which was shortly engulfed by flames. Rhodes required hospitalization, including surgery, for treatment of severe burns. McNairy was given oxygen at the scene, and she recovered. 87970-9930 / 87792-9931

HUMBERTO SANCHEZ III

Stockton, California

Humberto Sanchez III saved a boy from burning, Stockton, California, August 25, 2015. A 4-month-old boy remained strapped in his car seat, which was secured to the back seat of a sport utility vehicle, after an accident in which the vehicle was struck on its driver’s side by a pickup truck. The sport utility vehicle was then pushed into another car, and all three vehicles came to rest in close proximity to each other, the sport utility vehicle between the other two. Flames broke out at the front end of the sport utility vehicle and spread. Sanchez, 23, business manager, was nearby and heard the crash. He responded to the scene, where he approached the driver’s side of the sport utility vehicle but found both doors on that side jammed shut. Then going to the passenger side, he opened the rear door, fully entered the car, and, requiring multiple attempts, worked to free the boy from his seat’s restraints. He then lifted the boy from the seat and backed through the opened door with him, flames by then issuing along the underside of the vehicle to impinge on his legs. Flames grew also to enter and shortly engulf the front of the passenger compartment. The boy was taken to the hospital for observation, and Sanchez sustained only minor ill effect that did not require treatment. 88161-9932

MADISON L. WILLIAMS

Dublin, Ohio

Madison L. Williams saved a boy from drowning, Dublin, Ohio, August 27, 2016. A 2-year-old boy fell through the small, ground-level hatch of an underground septic tank on a residential property and submerged in sewage about 4 feet deep. Neighbors who responded to the scene could not reach him in the 8-foot-deep tank. Alerted to the situation by her mother, Madison, 13, student, lay on her stomach and, positioning her arms over her head, entered the 12-inch-wide opening to her thighs while others secured her by the legs. She skimmed the surface of the sewage with her hands searching for the boy for several moments before she saw his foot. Madison grasped the boy’s foot and shouted at the others to be pulled out. As she and the boy were being lifted from the tank, the boy’s free foot became stuck under the inside lip of the hatch. On Madison’s instruction, she was lowered somewhat and was able to reposition the boy. Those on the ground then pulled her and the boy completely free of the opening. The boy was not breathing but was then revived, and he fully recovered after hospital treatment. Madison required medical treatment for damage to her left wrist that required a brace for two months and physical therapy. She too fully recovered. 88542-9933

RAUL MORENO

Conyers, Georgia

Raul Moreno saved Harry Douglas from burning, Conyers, Georgia, June 22, 2016. Douglas, 71, was the driver of a dump truck that, in an accident, left the roadway and entered a shallow ditch. Trapped by wreckage, he remained in the driver’s seat as flames broke out in the undercarriage of the engine compartment and grew and spread, and dense smoke filled the cab. Witnessing the accident from his job site nearby, Moreno, 44, landscaper, went to the driver’s side of the truck and broke out the window of that door with his pruning shears. He then extended his head and arms through the opening but was repulsed by smoke and retreated. Taking a deep breath and holding it, Moreno again leaned into the cab. He bear-hugged Douglas about the chest and, pulling multiple times in between retreating for breaths of air, inched him from the cab as Douglas maneuvered his feet from his boots, which were trapped in the wreckage. Free of the window opening, the men fell to the ground, after which another man aided Moreno in carrying Douglas to safety. Douglas required hospital treatment for injuries sustained in the accident, but he was not burned. 88365-9934