John Flanigan had never met Lindsay Hardy, yet when neighbors told the private contractor a 6-year-old girl was trapped in the basement of her burning Overbrook home, he didn't hesitate to kick in an air-conditioning unit to reach her.
He found Lindsay lying unconscious on her bedroom floor on his third trip into the smoky room and hoisted her through the opening. Moments after Flanigan himself was pulled from the basement, the house collapsed.
"He had no fear," Lindsay's mother, Denise Hardy, said about Flanigan's resolve in responding to the August 2005 incident. "I don't know how to express it, how amazing his actions were. If it weren't for him, my little girl would be dead."
Flanigan, 58, of Overbrook, is one of 16 heroes nationally awarded the Carnegie Medal Thursday. The medal, given to people who put their lives at an extraordinary risk to save others, has been awarded to 9,028 people since 1904.
This is the fourth installment of the awards this year, given by the Carnegie Hero Fund, which has offices Downtown. Flanigan was one of two Pittsburgh men awarded the medal.
The other is Carnegie Mellon University senior Ben Saks, 21, who was shot while helping a Pittsburgh police officer control an unruly suspect outside Saks' Shadyside home. Although he knew he was nominated, Saks was surprised to be an awardee.
"I was honored and, to tell the truth, a little bit humbled," Saks said. "I just did what I had to do."
Saks was walking along Culloden Way on Feb. 25 when he saw the officer, who police have declined to identify, struggling with the man. Backup officers were on the way, but Saks offered assistance, and was trying to control the suspect's arm when the man reached for the officer's gun. It fired in the holster, shooting Saks in his right hand.
The architecture major's hand is healed, but scarred.
"I am extraordinarily lucky. It could be a lot worse," Saks said. "It's not a big deal. I have other scars, and that's all it is, a scar."
Saks, originally from Shaker Heights, Ohio, said his family is proud of him, although his mother worried about him at the time. Even now, she warns him to be careful.
"She said she's proud of me, but don't do something like that again," Saks said. "At the time, I didn't think about it. It was my instinct to help."
Flanigan had the same reaction when he found out Lindsay, now 7, was trapped.
"Everyone who knows him, they aren't surprised by this," said his wife, Roxann Flanigan, 56. "It's just the type of thing he would do."
Hardy, 37, wasn't able to thank John Flanigan for saving her daughter until yesterday, despite trying to meet him several times in the past year. Hardy was burned and hospitalized in the fire.
"It was very emotional for all of us," Hardy said. " 'Thank you' isn't enough to say to someone who does this for you."
John Flanigan is humbled by the award but insists he didn't do anything extraordinary.
"You don't think about something like this. You just do it."
