Bernard Joseph Duke helped to rescue Bernard J. LeBlanc from burning, Bathurst, New Brunswick, July 30, 1985. After a highway accident, LeBlanc, 27, was pinned, unconscious, in the driver’s seat of his car. Duke, 55, mechanic, witnessed the accident, then went to LeBlanc’s car, where he and another man attempted to remove LeBlanc. Joined by a third man, they pulled the driver’s door partially open, but before they could remove LeBlanc, the car’s fuel tank exploded, engulfing the car in flames. LeBlanc was thrown out of the car, and Duke and the other men were knocked to the ground. Duke and the other men returned to the car, grabbed LeBlanc, who was aflame, and pulled him away; they then extinguished his flames. LeBlanc suffered third-degree burns over 65 percent of his body and required extensive hospitalization.
61396 – 7123
61396-7123