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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Advertisement Email Story to a Friend December 29, 2003 Mark Adams, left, and Daniel Cline received Carnegie heroism medals for helping extract Elizabeth Wetherington from her burning vehicle in March 2002. Mail Tribune / Andrew Mariman Carnegie heroes Two Rogue Valley men get medals for helping woman from burning car in 2002 By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune Two Rogue Valley men have received medals for "extraordinary heroism" for pulling a woman from a burning pickup in March 2002. Mark Adams, a lathe operator who was 40 at the time, and Daniel Cline, a construction contractor who was then 21, came upon the fiery crash on Old Stage Road and, although they didn’t know one another, worked together to free Elizabeth Wetherington from her overturned, flaming truck. They yanked her from the cab moments before a transformer on a power pole the truck had hit crashed down and drove the flames higher, according to news reports at the time. Their efforts earned them the Carnegie Medal, presented by an organization set up by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1904. The bronze medal is given to people "who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while attempting to save the lives of others," the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission said. The two braved intense heat and smoke to pull the unconscious Wetherington from the wreck. Advertisement Wetherington, who was convicted of driving under the influence of intoxicants, had crashed her Chevrolet pickup on Old Stage Road March 18 around 7:30 p.m. The truck left the road, hit a driveway edge, became airborne, then struck a power pole. The truck landed on the driver’s side and the front caught fire, a commission report said. Cline was driving on Old Stage Road and was among the first to stop at the accident. He called 911 on his cell phone. "I just wanted to get help there as soon as possible," he said. The 911 operator told him that fire crews were on the way and cautioned him to stay away from the burning wreckage, he said "It was pretty intense," he recalled. "I had never seen anything like it." Adams arrived moments later, on his way to pick up his son, then 10, from a skating rink. "My first thought was there could be kids in there," Adams recalled. Then Adams saw movement inside the truck and people in the crowd said they heard moaning. "I thought someone could die if I didn’t do something," he said. He knocked out the truck’s sliding rear window and saw a woman slumped on the floor. A bystander handed him a fire extinguisher. He sprayed the cab, then reached in and tried to pull Wetherington out. Four times he ducked in to tug her free. Billowing smoke choked him and the flames’ heat turned the paint in the truck’s bed to a bubbling, slippery mess. Adams ran to a nearby house to get a garden hose to push back the heat and flames. Realizing immediate action was needed, Cline pushed the 911 operator’s warning to the back of his mind and plunged in. He kicked out the window’s remaining shards and grabbed Wetherington’s arm. As he yanked, her body finally cleared the seat and he toppled backward into some bushes. Then, with the help of bystanders, he dragged her still unconscious to safety in a ditch across the road. The transformer crashed down on the truck, which erupted in flames that firefighters said shot 50 feet into the air. Wetherington was treated for injuries sustained in the accident, but she wasn’t burned. Adams was treated for smoke inhalation. "I’m glad no one got hurt," Cline said. "It worked out pretty well." He said the experience made him acutely aware of the consequences of drinking and driving. The wreck opened Wetherington’s eyes about that danger, too. She wrote the commission a letter thanking the heroes who gave her a chance to turn her life around after the crash. Adams and Cline received local and state awards for their heroism, but were still surprised to get the latest medal. The award comes with $3,500. Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4459, or e-mail [email protected] . Mine blast led to Carnegie medal fund The organization that honored Mark Adams and Dan Cline grew out of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie’s desire to honor heroic behavior by ordinary people. He was inspired by a massive coal-mine explosion on January 25, 1904, at Harwick, Pa., near Pittsburgh. The explosion killed 181 people, including two rescuers who died seeking survivors and collecting bodies, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission’s Web site said. "Every other philanthropic fund that Carnegie had ever established had been proposed to him — often forced upon him — by others," wrote biographer Joseph Frazier Wall. "The Hero Fund came out of his own head and heart, and it delighted him." In nearly a century, the commission he started has honored 8,764 people in the United States and Canada and given out $26.8 million. Other Southern Oregon heroes of recent years include Gary D. Knight of Medford, who rescued a man from a Portland apartment fire in 1989; and Chris Hockert of Grants Pass, who saved a father and son being swept out to sea near Charleston in 1995. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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