Frederick L. Palmer Jr.

Frederick L. Palmer Jr. helped rescue Pete Dunegan from drowning, Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, September 17, 2024. Dunegan, 43, was working at a municipal water authority site, replacing a valve inside an underground vault, when a pressurized water line caused a large interior pipe to dislodge from the vault’s wall. This caused water to rush inside, pushing the steel valve into Dunegan’s leg, almost completely severing it. A co-worker inside the vault with Dunegan was knocked off his feet due to the speed of the water. Quickly regaining composure, the co-worker saw Dunegan, semiconscious, was severely injured and bleeding, and he advanced to him. Although the co-worker in the vault with Dunegan shouted for others to turn off the flow of water at a valve about 1,200 feet away, water already in that pipe continued to fill the underground vault, which was 12 feet square and 6 feet deep. After hearing his co-worker shout for help and seeing Dunegan’s state, Palmer, 60, distribution system service worker, descended the vault’s interior ladder and reached Dunegan. With his co-worker, Palmer tried to move Dunegan from the pipe he was sitting on, but they were unsuccessful. They shouted to other workers outside the vault for a lifting strap, and they were supplied with one. With the water at chest height, Palmer and the co-worker were able to float Dunegan to the ladder. They shouted to a crane operator on-site to lower the crane, and a worker at ground level attached a loop of the lifting strap, which had been wrapped around Dunegan’s chest and under his arms, to the crane hook. Dunegan was lifted out of the vault, then lowered to the ground. Palmer and his co-worker exited to safety as the vault overflowed with water. Palmer used his belt as a tourniquet on Dunegan’s injured leg before Dunegan was taken to a trauma center, where he underwent surgery to reattach his leg. Palmer was not injured.

2025-0000069-10545