James E. Rog helped to rescue Virginia C. Alvarado and five children from burning, Oregon, Illinois, August 20, 1995. Ms. Alvarado, 38, was one of 13 people in a van that caught fire in a two-vehicle highway accident. James, 15, student, and his father had been traveling behind the van and arrived at the scene moments after the accident. They responded to the van, where James’s father broke out a window at the rear of the passenger side. Despite flames spreading to the van’s interior from the front where they had originated, he pulled Ms. Alvarado out; James and his father then carried her to the side of the highway. James and his father returned to the van, in which flames were continuing to spread, and, in repeated entries through the broken rear window and through another window that James broke out, removed five children, who ranged in age from 5 to 11. Intensifying flames which engulfed the van forced them away and claimed the lives of the van’s remaining occupants. Ms. Alvarado was hospitalized one month for treatment of serious injuries and burns, and the children all required hospital treatment for injury. James also was treated at the hospital, for first-degree burns to his face. He recovered.
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