Kevin Joseph Barbee helped to save Kerry A. Wagner from burning, Moscow, Idaho, June 27, 2010. Trapped by wreckage, Wagner, 51, was unconscious in the driver’s seat of his pickup truck after a highway accident in which the truck collided head on with another pickup. The two vehicles came to a stop upright, parallel to each other, and only about five feet apart. Flames broke out at the front of the other pickup, the driver of which died in the accident. Motorists, including Barbee, 44, lumber grader, stopped at the scene. He responded to Wagner’s pickup and broke out windows on its driver’s side to access Wagner. Another man had entered the vehicle through its front passenger door and moved part of the wreckage away to free Wagner. Despite flames by then issuing from the front of that vehicle, Barbee went between the trucks to its passenger side, joining a third man who had arrived. The heat between the vehicles was intense. With Wagner freed, Barbee leaned into the pickup, grasped him, and with the two other rescuers pulled him out of the truck. They carried him to safety within minutes of flames engulfing both pickups. Although spared from burning, Wagner suffered multiple injuries in the collision, requiring hospitalization and surgery. He recovered.
83715 – 9472
83715-9472