19 recipients of Carnegie Hero medals and money that are awarded for civilian heroism

Recipients of Carnegie Heroes Fund medals being awarded Thursday. Ages listed are how old each person was at the time of the event described:

—Jeffrey R. Heimbach, 29, of Denville, N.J., pulled an 18-year-old man from a burning vehicle that crashed in Roxbury Township, N.J., on Sept. 23, 2008.

—Garrett T. Townsend Jr., 58, of Detroit, drowned helping to save a 7-year-old boy who fell into an excavation pit filled with murky water 15 feet deep at a construction site on May 24, 2009. Townsend went in the water even though he didn't swim well and helped the boy until someone else could remove him from the water.

—Catharina Rowley, 33, of Paso Robles, Calif., saved a 12-year-old girl who was swept off her feet by large waves and pulled about 150 feet from shore in 55-degree Pacific Ocean water at Cambria, Calif., on June 28, 2008.

—Alexander J. Whitney, 17, of Grand Haven, Mich., saved a 16-year-old boy who was pulled from the shore of Lake Michigan by a strong current on Aug. 3, 2009.

—Stanley C. Romberg, 68, of Ocala, Fla., saved a 21-year-old convenience store clerk from being assaulted when he fought off one of two masked armed robbers and was shot in the arm in the process on March 19, 2009.

—Corey Saladin, 14, of Reed City, Mich., saved two girls, ages 8 and 9, who were carried into the Gulf of Mexico by a strong tidal current in Sanibel, Fla. on Aug. 20, 2009. Saladin swam out 800 feet to the girls using a short surfboard.

—Scott Hecht, 45, of Hauppauge, N.Y., saved a teenage girl who was pulled about 200 feet from Mastic Beach, N.Y., by rough surf in the Atlantic Ocean on July 30, 2009.

—Douglas L. Hipple, 38, of Warren, Ohio, suffered burns over 14 percent of his body while trying to save three people from a house fire on April 28, 2009. Hipple and the others were overcome by smoke and pulled from the flames by firefighters. One person died and Hipple was disabled for more than a year.

—Eric L. Fullerton, 59, of Salt Lake City, rescued a fast food worker who'd been grabbed by an armed escaped prisoner on June 25, 2007. Fullerton jumped over the counter and subdued the gunman, who cut Fullerton with a knife, allowing the employee and others in the restaurant to escape.

—John M. Krahn, 41, of Muskego, Wis., suffered broken bones and was disabled for more than a year after trying to save a woman and her 1-year-old son who were in a minivan stuck on a rail at a train crossing in Elm Grove, Wis. on May 25, 2009. The woman and the boy were not hurt.

—James Callahan, 48, of Flower Mound, Texas, saved five children in a parked van that began rolling toward a six-lane highway on June 16, 2009, in Watauga, Texas. Callahan was able to enter the van and apply the brake but broke his leg when he was run over and dragged by the van.

—Keith Sampson, 13, and Kristine Kelly Keaton, 37, of Flint, Mich., helped rescue a family from an attacking dog on Oct. 18, 2009. Keaton and a 3-year-old were badly bitten.

—Allen Lee Heck, 20, of Longview, Wash., died helping to save a 9-year-old girl who stepped off a sandbar into deeper water in the Cowlitz River in Kelso, Wash., on July 17, 2009.

—Michael Earl Gay Sr., 43, of Bartow, Fla., saved a 28-year-old woman from a burning vehicle that had run off a road and crashed into a tree in Alturas, Fla., on Nov. 11, 2009.

—Nathan R. Simpson, 34, Medina, Ohio, broke through a window to pull a 7-year-old boy from a house fire on Oct. 26, 2009. The boy died of smoke inhalation, and Simpson was burned and cut and suffered smoke inhalation.

—Tina Maryann Moores, 35, of Grand Falls-Windsor in Canada's Newfoundland province, drowned helping to save a 9-year-old girl who was carried 130 feet from the shore of Red Indian Lake in Buchans, Newfoundland, on Aug. 15, 2009.

—John Rechlitz, 44, and his brother, Joel P. Rechlitz, 29, both of Milwaukee, suffered burns rescuing a 4-year-old boy from a booster seat in a burning vehicle that had overturned on July 19, 2009.