Nathan Daniel Stover helped to rescue Heather S. Peebles from burning, Waldo, Maine, September 21, 1996. Ms. Peebles, 18, was trapped by wreckage in the driver’s seat of a car after a highway accident in which the car left the highway, struck a tree, and caught fire. Stover, 22, mechanic, came upon the scene and discovered the car was occupied. He went to the driver’s door but was unable to open it, then, after enlarging the opening at the window of that door, reached his upper body into the car and grasped Ms. Peebles. Flames had spread into the car and were on its dashboard and ceiling, parts of which were dripping onto Ms. Peebles. Stover patted out flames on Ms. Peebles’s leg, then grasped her by her belt and pulled her partially out of the car, her foot remaining caught. Stover’s father arrived after having been alerted at his home nearby. He emptied a fire extinguisher into the car to put out some of the flames momentarily, then reached inside and freed Ms. Peebles’s foot. Stover and his father carried Ms. Peebles away from the car, which was shortly engulfed by flame. Ms. Peebles was hospitalized one month for treatment of second- and third-degree burns and other serious injuries. Stover was treated at the hospital for burns to his arms and face and a laceration; he recovered.
71097 – 8102
71097-8102