At the June 11, 2019 Board of Supervisors meeting, SF Supervisor Gordon Mar presented a Carnegie Medal to Sunset resident Nick Anderson for courageous actions in saving five lives.

 

Since 1904, Carnegie Medals have been awarded to community members who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving the lives of others. Anderson is one of 19 individuals from throughout the U.S. and Canada recently awarded Carnegie Medals for their acts of heroism.

In May 2017, Anderson, along with his girlfriend Tracy Spears, saved five people from a burning vehicle when he stopped at the scene of an accident in Willits, Mendocino County. Six people were inside a pickup truck that collided with an SUV on Highway 101 in the early morning hours. Fire broke out at the front ends of both vehicles.

With another man’s help, Nick pried open one of the truck’s rear doors and freed a 7-year-old boy from his seat and removed a 22-month-old girl from her safety seat, handing her off to another person. As Nick moved around the truck to reach the passenger side, he heard someone moaning from inside the covered bed. He reached through the cover’s rear window and lifted the injured man through it, lowering him to the road.

He then entered twice more to remove two women, from the truck, as flames licked the front windshield. The fire rapidly spread and engulfed both vehicles. Tragically neither driver survived.

“On behalf of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, I am truly honored to recognize Nick Anderson for his courageous and quick thinking actions that saved the lives of five others” Mar said.