Carnegie Awards Salute Heroes Industrialist’s Legacy Has Given $26 Million

Annell Bings was 17 when she became a hero for rescuing two fellow passengers when their car plunged into an icy river.

“After I got o the surface, I realized there was no one following me,” Bings, 21, said of the 1994 accident in Birkenhead River in British Columbia. “The car was sinking really, really quickly.”

Bings dove down to the car and rescued one woman and helped another to shore but she could not rescue the driver, who died. Bings, from Aachen, Germany, is one of 18 people who will receive a bronze medal from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission

Since its founding in 1904 by industrialist Andrew Carnegie, the fund has honored 8,151 people with $22.6 million in grants, scholarships and other assistance.

Among the winners announced Thursday:

Jose S. Rios of Royse City, Texas, 17, saved a 7-year-old boy from a neighbor’s burning house; he died trying to save the boy’s 11-year-old brother.

Fred R. Anderson, of Crystal Falls, Mich., broke into a car on fire to pull out the unconscious driver, who died.

Frank M. Nielsen fought off three Rottweiler dogs attacking a woman in Corona, Calif.

Teacher Jon M. Lane grabbed a 14-year-old boy who shot to death two students and a teacher at a classroom in Moses Lake, Wash.

Bruce S. Phillips rescued a 69-year-old man from his burning house trailer in Andover, Ohio.

Reuben M. Vizcarra saved a woman from a knife attack in her apartment in Arcadia, Calif.

Robert Francis Burau dragged a man in a wheelchair from his burning home in Roseville, Calif., The man died.

John L. Jones, of Parlin, N.J., died trying to save a coworker who also died from toxic fumes inside a tank trailer at a company in Port Reading, N.J.

Connie S. Miller was badly cut while trying to stop a rolling van carrying her neighbor’s twin 4-year-old boys in Ringgold, Ga.

Martin L. Hogue rescued a 73-year-old neighbor from her burning house in Visalia, Calif.

Coal miner Daniel L. Williams of Bellaire, Ohio, rescued a neighbor from his burning house.

-Meter reader Richard H. Wade entered a burning apartment building in Ramsomville, N.Y., and climbed to the second floor to rescue a child.

Robert Michael Sheridan of Lillooet, British Columbia, saved a 76-year-old woman who was fishing and fell into a river.

Kevin J. Dintino saved an 11-year-old boy and helped save a man from drowning in the Patuxent River in Brighton, Md.

Alaine Gill of Corona, Calif., saved a woman and two boys by grappling with their assailant.

Jeffrey Gau saved a woman from a burning apartment house in Flushing, N.Y.

Jewelry store owner Michael F. Ponty of Salmon, British Columbia, grabbed a gun from a teenager who was aiming at the police officer he had just taken it from. He grabbed the gun just as it fired.