Sandra S. Baldwin helped to rescue Justin P. Carstensen from burning, Merrill, Wisconsin, July 31, 2007. Following a highway accident involving a pickup truck and the pickup that he was driving, Justin, 17, remained in the driver’s seat, unconscious and restrained by his safety belt. Both vehicles had left the roadway and came to rest upright in a grassy ditch next to each other. Fire broke out in the engine compartment of Justin’s vehicle and at the undercarriage, and grass in the immediate vicinity also caught fire. Traveling on the same highway, Baldwin, 38, registered nurse, and her husband arrived at the scene. They approached the driver’s door of Justin’s pickup, and after Baldwin’s husband peeled it open, Baldwin reached inside to support Justin as her husband worked to free him from his safety belt, stomping on flames at his feet as he did so. Baldwin and her husband then grasped Justin by the arms, pulled him from the pickup, and dragged him to safety. Flames grew to envelope Justin’s pickup as well as the other truck. Justin was hospitalized for treatment of extensive burns and injuries sustained in the accident.
80626 – 9197
80626-9197