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SALT LAKE CITY -- A Murray man rushed into action and saved a truck driver last summer from his burning rig, which later exploded. Another man and a woman jumped into a rushing river to pull a fallen hiker.
Wednesday, these people -- and several others -- were honored during the Red Cross's 2011 Heroes awards for their acts of bravery.
These heroes all have something in common: They all said they just had to help in a time of need.
In Bell's Canyon this past June, hiker Mansour Ariazand fell 40 feet into rushing, icy water. Fortunately for him, a few heroes were not far behind.
Jill Anderson, Brynn Mudliar and others just happened to be nearby.
"The next thing we knew, we heard crying and screaming for help," Anderson said.
Without hesitation, they jumped into the rushing water to help.
"I was scared at first, but I knew we needed to save him," Mudliar said.
"In that moment, I feel like I actually grew up and took control," Anderson said. "I said, ‘I know what to do and I'm going to do it.'"
Even now, 10 months later, Ariazand can clearly remember that day he was hiking Bell's Canyon.
"I'm so lucky they were there. I owe my life to those people," he said.
For their efforts, the Utah Red Cross honored Anderson and Mudliar, and about a dozen others, for heroic acts in the past year at the 2011 Red Cross Heroes event.
Another person recognized as a Red Cross Hero was Theodore Killinger. Last summer, he and others ran to help a truck driver who slammed into a car going the wrong way on I-215.
Killinger stopped his car, ran across traffic, the median and into the other lanes to help -- just in the nick of time.
"Maybe 30 seconds or something later, the whole thing just burst into flames," Killinger said. "It was like a furnace right where we were standing."
Yes, it was dangerous, but like all the other heroes honored, Killinger said he just couldn't sit there and do nothing.
"It just seemed like the right thing to do. That's just the way i was raised," he said.
Email: acabrero@ksl.com
