Timothy McCarthy rescued Benjamin M. Denham from burning, Overland Park, Kansas, March 16, 2010. At night, the automobile in which Denham, 18, and two friends were traveling left the street and struck an electric power pole and then the corner of a house before coming to a stop upright in a yard. Flames erupted on the car. McCarthy, 22, a service technician who lived nearby, heard the crash and ran to the scene. Flames covered the back of the car and most of its interior, sparing only the driver’s seat, where Denham remained, semiconscious. McCarthy reached through the broken window of the driver’s door, grasped Denham, and pulled him out of the vehicle. The clothing on Denham’s upper body was aflame, and McCarthy, aided by another man who had responded, patted his clothing and rolled him on the ground to extinguish the flames. Denham required extensive hospitalization for treatment of severe burns. His friends did not survive the accident. McCarthy suffered burns to his right hand, for which he was treated at the hospital. He recovered.
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