Terry W. Thacker rescued James D. and saved Virginia C. White from burning, Trafford, Alabama, January 21, 2005. At night, White, 64, was driving a car in which his wife, 65, was the front-seat passenger when the vehicle collided with a pickup truck that entered their lane. The truck burst into flames on impact. The vehicles left the roadway and came to rest in the yard of a residence, the front of the car, then aflame, against the side of the truck. The owner of the residence, Thacker, 47, pipe fitter, heard the crash and immediately responded to the scene. He approached the left side of the car, finding that the window of the driver’s door had been broken out. Thacker leaned through the window opening, grasped White, and pulled him head first from the car. Another man moved him farther away. Thacker turned back to the window, again leaned through it, and grasped Ms. White. He pulled her head first through the window and to the ground, then, spent, collapsed to the ground himself. The other man moved Ms. White farther away as Thacker moved away on his own. Flames shortly engulfed the car. White and his wife were hospitalized for treatment of significant injuries, White’s including second-degree burns. Thacker injured a finger and strained back muscles, and he recovered.
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