David Blair Johnson helped to rescue Roland P. Robert from burning, Tecumseh, Ontario, August 13, 1998. Flying a helicopter, Robert, 35, was applying insecticide to a field when the helicopter crashed to the ground and caught fire. Trapped in the wreckage of the cockpit, he shouted for help. Johnson, 39, business operator, and another man witnessed the accident from their vehicle on a road adjacent to the field. They drove closer to the scene, then ran to the wreckage. Despite flames six feet high issuing from the area of the helicopter’s engine and fuel tanks, Johnson held to Robert’s upper body while the other man freed his feet and legs from the wreckage. Johnson and the other man then grasped Robert about the shoulders, pulled him from the helicopter, and dragged him away. Within moments, an explosion in the wreckage engulfed much of it with flames. Robert sustained only a minor burn but required extensive hospitalization for significant other injury.
72991 – 8326
72991-8326