Two Jasper Police Officers have received the Carnegie Medal.
Officers Grant Goffinet and Brent Duncan received the medal for their acts of heroism.
The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the U.S. and Canada to those who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.
Goffinet and Duncan, despite having no fire-rescue training, saved a man from a burning vehicle.
On September 16, 2018, Goffinet and Duncan arrived at an accident where the front passenger of an overturned and burning SUV remained in his seat. The passenger appeared disoriented to the officers.
Goffinet and Duncan discharged fire extinguishers at flames in the car’s engine compartment, but the fire continued to burn. Goffinet entered the SUV through the broken-out, rear hatch window. He entered to his waist, removed a headrest from a rear seat, and called to the man, who moved toward him. Goffinet grasped his upper body and pulled him. By then, Duncan had joined Goffinet at the vehicle’s rear and gained a hold on the man’s arm.
Together, they removed the man, and a bystander helped Goffinet and Duncan drag him away from the vehicle before flames spread and grew to consume it. The man was taken to a hospital for treatment of a facial abrasion; he was not burned.
