Charles 0. Stickles rescued Melissa B. and Harvey R. Rosenblum from burning, New Windsor, New York, December 10, 1988. Melissa, 17; her father, Rosenblum, 43, and her mother were trapped inside their automobile which caught fire after a highway accident. Stickles, 36, deionization water technician, was driving by when the accident occurred. He immediately went to the driver’s side of the Rosenblums’ car but found its doors jammed. Stickles then broke the window of the driver’s door with a jack handle and, despite increasing flames on the car, extended his upper body inside, grasped Melissa, who was unconscious, and pulled her out. He then broke the window of the front passenger door with the jack handle and, extending his head and arms inside the car, grasped Rosenblum, who was aflame, and pulled him out through the window. Stickles returned to the car for Mrs. Rosenblum, but its interior was by then engulfed in flames. Rosenblum and Melissa were hospitalized for their injuries, and Rosenblum for burns. Stickles required hospital treatment for cuts and first-, second-, and third-degree burns; he recovered in two weeks.
63699 – 7354
63699-7354