Utah officer to receive national medal for heroism

Utah officer to receive national medal for heroism

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ROY — A Utah police officer is being recognized nationally as a hero for saving a man from a house fire in Roy.

Roy police officer Kyle Christensen was among the first on scene at a raging blaze near 3900 South and 225 West on Jan. 11, 2014, when he spotted an elderly woman distraught that her son was still inside the house.

"After his mother came out, the first thing going through my mind was, 'If this was my mom I’d want somebody to go down there,'” Christensen said Monday.

What Christensen did next earned him the Carnegie Medal this week, an award the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission says is given “to those who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others."

Christensen, 30, rushed into the basement of the home, braving heavy smoke, flames and ammunition being set off by the blaze, and pulled out the 50-year-old man as fire engulfed the structure.

Christensen tried entering the home twice, and was at first repelled by heavy smoke. He entered again to find the man on the floor at the bottom of the stairs.

"I was scared, absolutely,” Christensen recalled, noting one gulp of smoke “can pretty much take you down."

But the patrol officer, who fought fires in rural Idaho for two years before joining the police force, swallowed his physical instinct to run to safety.


I don't think anyone else would have done anything different.

–Kyle Christensen


Christensen, who lives in Perry, Box Elder County, is one of 20 people being honored with medals and cash from the Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Heroes Fund Commission. The Carnegie Hero awards are named for Pittsburgh steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who was inspired by stories of heroism during a coal mine disaster that killed 181 people, including a miner and an engineer who died trying to rescue others.

Christensen’s hair was singed on the way out of the house, and he was later hospitalized for smoke inhalation. The man he saved was treated at University Hospital for second- and third-degree burns.

Christensen suffered effects from smoke inhalation for about three months.

"It was just a matter of getting that stuff out of my lungs,” he said. But he returned to work just two days after the fire. The officer said he knows dangerous situations are a part of public service and doesn’t think of his saving efforts as unusual or extraordinary.

"I don’t think anyone else would have done anything different,” Christensen said.

The officer learned Monday morning that he was selected for the Carnegie Medal. He said he still doesn’t know who nominated him, although he has some ideas.

Others who are being honored with the Carnegie Medal include a Tennessee pastor and his son.

The Rev. Neil Crass and his son, Hunter O’Neil Crass, helped when three 14-year-old boys broke through the ice covering the Emory River in Harriman, Tennessee, on Feb. 1, 2014.

The two men drove to the scene after learning of the mishap and used their three-person, 15-foot aluminum motor boat to reach the boys, who were clinging to a buoy. They took aboard a firefighter who had been breaking the ice to clear a path toward the boys. When they reached the boys, they hauled them into the boat and then surrendered their coats to them. The elder Crass was 43 at the time; his son was 19.

Three people being honored died during rescue attempts.

Jonathan Michael Davis, 29, of South Euclid, Ohio, died helping rescue a 9-year-old boy from drowning in a Lake Erie inlet in Cleveland, Ohio, in August 2013. Philip Scholz, 35, of Pleasanton, California, died when he was hit by a commuter train while pulling a man from the tracks in Santa Clara, California, in January 2014. The other man hit by the train survived. And Matthew Ray Hattaway, 25, of Bossier City, Louisiana, died trying to rescue a 14-year-old boy from drowning in the Gulf of Mexico off Fort Morgan, Alabama in June 2013.

The hero awards, which will be formally announced Tuesday, honor those who risk their lives for others.

The winners are from Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.

The Carnegie Heroes Fund Commission investigates stories of heroism and awards medals and cash several times a year.

Other winners

The other winners of Carnegie Hero medals are:

• Patrick J. LaRose, 38, of Brooklyn, New York, who saved an 11-year-old boy from drowning when he fell through ice on Crystal Lake in Shelby Township, Michigan, in November 2013.

• Charles David Jordan, 63, of Houston, Texas, who saved a 34-year-old woman from being mauled by two pit bulls on a jogging trail in March 2014.

• Dean Ronald Nelson, 31, of Mondovi, Wisconsin, who saved a 5-year-old girl from a burning home in Gilmanton, Wisconsin, in February 2014.

• Matthew R. Ward, 22, of Westfield, New York, who saved a 9-year-old boy from drowning in Lake Erie in July 2014.

• Michael Elgas, 48, of Henderson, Nevada, who rescued a 38-year-old police officer who was assaulted by a man he was trying to arrest in a restaurant parking lot in Las Vegas in March 2014.

• Terry Brown, 33, of Brookings, Oregon, who helped rescue a 14-year-old boy from drowning in surf near a state park beach in June 2014.

• Michael D. Bates, 20, of Durand, Illinois, who helped save a 78-year-old man from suffocating when he was trapped in a grain bin full of corn kernels in Rockton, Illinois, in January 2014.

• John Reed Jr., 35, and Jason William Gingras, 34, both of Seminole, Florida, who saved an unconscious 46-year-old driver from a burning cargo van that had crashed in St. Petersburg, Florida, in February 2014.

• Peter David Woit, 54, of Carlos, Minnesota, who rescued a 70-year-old man from a burning home in April 2014.

• Christine Alicia Wilson, 42, of West Henrietta, New York, who saved siblings 6-year-old, 2-year-old and 6 months old from a burning minivan that crashed in Henrietta, New York, in November 2013.

• Luz A. Jimenez, 26, of Hackettstown, New Jersey, who helped save a 3-year-old girl from downing after she fell into an abandoned cesspool in June 2014.

• Kyle V. Gibbs, 36, of Morenci, Arizona, who helped save a 69-year-old woman from a burning mobile home in Duncan, Arizona, in August 2013.

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