Mark Andrew Sellers saved Jordan R. Sweigart from burning, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, November 17, 2007. Jordan, 17, was trapped in the driver’s seat of his car, which in a nighttime accident had left the roadway and struck a utility pole. The pole broke in the accident, and its top, bearing electric lines and transformers, fell onto the car, jamming shut its driver’s door. The lines arced. Sellers, 45, sales representative, approached the scene in his vehicle and trained its headlights on the wrecked car. He approached the driver’s side of the car and told Jordan to await arrival of emergency personnel. Sellers then saw that a fire had started in the car’s engine compartment and concluded that there was not enough time for help to arrive. To test if the car were energized, he struck a glancing blow against its driver’s door. He then grasped the handle and pulled hard, but the handle broke off and his momentum threw him back. Sellers returned to the car and kicked at the window of the driver’s door, but the glass did not break. Despite the growing flames, he then opened the rear door, entered the car, and with Jordan reclined the back of the driver’s seat. He grasped Jordan under his arms, pulled him from the vehicle, and dragged him to safety. Flames soon enveloped the car. Jordan required hospitalization for treatment of his injuries, and he recovered.
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