Fredrik C. Pedersen saved Laura C. Campbell and helped to save Larry W. Ollenburger from burning, Brownsville, Washington, June 21, 1964. A two-door sedan containing Miss Campbell, 19, Ollenburger, 21, serviceman, his wife, and his brother-in-law was involved in a collision which badly damaged the automobile and ruptured its fuel tank. Flames broke out at the front of the sedan and at the rear above the engine as the vehicle veered from the highway and stopped alongside a rail fence. All four occupants were knocked unconscious. Pedersen, 15, schoolboy, ran 600 feet to the sedan, where heat was intense from flames as much as 10 feet high at the front and three feet high at the rear. Flames also were inside the vehicle. Pedersen took hold of Miss Campbell, whose upper body extended through a window opening, and pulled her from the automobile. He dragged her 25 feet away and ran back to the sedan. Unable to open the door, he ran to the driver’s side despite the warnings of his parents. Pedersen was joined by Paul C. Eliason, who had been a passenger in the other vehicle involved in the accident. Eliason’s nose was bleeding, and he had sustained cuts from broken glass. The flames were increasing both outside and inside the sedan as Pedersen and Eliason moved to the open window where Ollenburger was slumped in the driver’s seat. The fence prevented the door from being opened. Pedersen and Eliason each reached into the sedan, took hold of Ollenburger, and with difficulty because of his weight lifted him from the seat. Together they pulled him through the window opening and took him five feet from the burning sedan. Others then assisted in moving Ollenburger farther away. By that time flames six to eight feet high almost completely engulfed the sedan. Firemen arrived, extinguished the flames, and removed the bodies of the other two persons from the wreckage. Miss Campbell and Ollenburger later succumbed to their injuries.
47854 – 4975
47854-4975