My name is Gregory Larson. I am a Firefighter for the city of Henderson, NV. Each day I go to work with the chance that I may have to risk my life to save the life of a total stranger. This is what I do for a living. When I or any other emergency worker put our lives on the line, we are doing our job.

But when an untrained citizen jumps into harm's way to help or save a total stranger, then that citizen becomes a hero. My brother became a hero in July 2002.

My brother, David, is a tow truck driver with no emergency medical or firefighting training. Early in the morning of July 8th, David came upon an Oldsmobile that had crashed into a telephone pole. He and another man, John, who also stopped to help, found a man unconscious and trapped in the wreckage. After reporting the accident to the police, David and John noticed that the engine had caught on fire. David tried to extinguish it with a small fire extinguisher from the tow truck, but the fire spread too quickly. It soon engulfed the passenger compartment.

David and John realized that the man would burn to death if someone did not get him out, and they heard no sirens of approaching emergency vehicles. So, the two risked their lives by approaching the burning car, prying open the jammed driver's door, freeing the man from his seat belt, and then pulling him from the burning car. They wore no fire-resistant clothing and had no tools to help open the door??they had only their courage and the will to save a life.

They pulled the man free of his burning car seconds before the entire passenger compartment was engulfed in flames. The driver suffered some serious 2nd and 3rd degree burns, but he is alive today because two strangers became heroes that morning.

My brother had no special equipment or training, but he risked his life to enter a burning car to save a man he did not know. Many people would have stood by watching, waiting for the fire department. My brother didn't. That is why I think he deserves a Volvo for life Award. To risk your life, to save the life of another, no nobler deed can be done!

David Larson tows cars for a living. If your car breaks down, if you have a flat tire, if you run out of gas, he shows up to do what he was trained to do. Climbing inside a burning car to save a stranger is something extraordinary; it shows a concern for human life, even at the peril of one?s own

David doesn't think he is a hero. He believes that any other person would have done the same thing. But in my experience as a firefighter, I have seen very few people help others in peril, especially when such an effort would require risking one?s own life.

That is the difference that makes David a hero.

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