PITTSBURGH (AP) — Two Pennsylvania men who died trying to save a 5-year-old girl and her mother who fell through ice into a pond, are among 23 people being honored with Carnegie medals for heroism.
Thirty-six-year-old Willard Van Fleet Jr., of Factoryville, and his stepfather, 55-year-old Mark Keene, of Dalton, died Feb. 21, 2009 in Dalton, Lackawanna County.
Van Fleet entered the water after the child’s mother fell in attempting to save her daughter. Van Fleet handed the girl to her mother, and both were rescued by firefighters but Van Fleet drowned.
Keene died of a heart attack after placing a ladder along the ice for the victims to grab.
Pittsburgh steel baron Andrew Carnegie was inspired to start the fund in 1904 after hearing rescue stories from a mine disaster that killed 181 people. More than $32 million has been awarded to 9,372 people. Medalists, or their heirs, receive $6,000.
