Keith Hilton Smith rescued Charles E. Will from burning, Bloomington, Illinois, July 25, 1997. Dazed, Will, 51, lay trapped in the cab of his gasoline tanker truck after a highway accident in which the truck turned onto its driver’s side and, partially off the highway, began to burn. Driving nearby, Smith, 32, limousine service owner, saw the accident. He immediately ran to the scene and, despite flames at the front of the tanker and underneath the cab, approached the rig and shouted to Will. He reached an arm through a missing part of the windshield and grasped Will, then pulled him from the truck just before flames spread to the cab. Smith took Will to a point of safety back on the highway before the rig’s contents erupted into flames quickly and burned intensely. Will was hospitalized overnight for treatment of a burn to one hand and other injury.
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