Roger J. Guthrie rescued David G. Hall and saved Eric S. Frey from burning, Medina, Ohio, February 7, 1999. Hall, 33, and Frey, 38, both special agents of a federal bureau, were unconscious in the wreckage of a six-seat airplane that crashed in a wooded area and caught fire. The plane contained firearms and a large quantity of ammunition that began to explode as heat from the growing flames intensified. Guthrie, 42, also a special agent, was himself a passenger in the plane, but he escaped through its broken windshield. Despite injuries sustained in the crash, including a broken ankle, Guthrie went to the side of the fuselage and extended his upper body into the plane through a window next to the pilot’s seat. He released Hall’s safety belt, then pulled him from the plane and dragged him a short distance away. Guthrie returned to the plane, extended his upper body through a small opening in the fuselage at the rear of the plane, and grasped Frey. He pulled Frey from the plane and dragged him away. A man who had heard the crash from his home a quarter-mile away arrived at the scene. The plane engulfed by flames by then with ammunition continuing to explode, Guthrie and the man together dragged Hall, then Frey, farther away, to a point in the woods offering some protection. Hall and Frey required hospitalization for their injuries, Hall’s including a burn to his left hand. Guthrie was hospitalized four days for treatment of his injuries.
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