Bryan Thomas Jared helped to save James M. Polehinke from burning, Lexington, Kentucky, August 27, 2006. Polehinke, 44, was the co-pilot of a commercial regional jet that crashed during takeoff and caught fire. Severely injured, he remained restrained by a harness to his seat in the cockpit. On duty nearby, Jared, 29, police officer, responded to the scene, where he found that flames had engulfed the wreckage except for the area of the cockpit. Seeing Polehinke through a gap in the wreckage at the nose of the jet, Jared crawled into the cockpit and attempted to free him. A safety officer from the airport also arrived, and he too crawled into the wreckage. Working together, they freed Polehinke, but with difficulty, flames just feet away. They then pulled him from the cockpit and loaded him into a responder’s vehicle that had arrived. Polehinke required extensive hospitalization, and Jared was treated at the hospital for a minor burn to an arm. The 49 other passengers and crewmembers of the jet died in the accident.
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