Dennis Mark Baptiste helped to rescue Timothy C. Baptiste from burning, Butler, Pennsylvania, June 21, 2006. Following a highway accident in which a box truck at high speed struck the rear of his stopped automobile, Timothy, 47, remained in the driver’s seat, unconscious and trapped by wreckage. The car, virtually demolished, had burst into flame as the vehicles veered across the highway, and they remained in contact. Flames grew and spread to the inside of the car and to the front of the truck. Dennis, 45, construction worker, drove upon the scene just after the accident and joined two other men attempting a rescue at the driver’s side of the car. Despite the car’s interior flames that dropped melting material, he reached through the open window of the driver’s door to free Timothy’s legs, not then realizing that he and Timothy were related. The men then pulled Timothy through the window and from the car and took him to safety moments before the car’s interior was engulfed by flames. Timothy required hospitalization for treatment of extensive injuries, including burns.
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