A retired construction consultant, 68-year-old Julius A. Ortenzo, of Prescott, is among eighteen individuals honored with a Carnegie Medal, the highest honor for civilian heroism in the U.S. and Canada. Mr. Ortenzo is honored for saving a mother and children from a vehicle fire on a remote highway in Ash Fork, Arizona.
According to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission:
Mr. Ortenzo was in his vehicle when he witnessed an SUV on fire after a violent collision with another vehicle on Aug. 30, 2018.
Stopping nearby, Ortenzo heard children in the vehicle screaming for help. He ran to a backdoor, where he pulled 6-year-old Ava Castelhano through the window opening. Despite rapidly spreading flames and intense heat, Ortenzo then removed Axel Castelhano, a 5-month-old boy, and Addison Castelhano, 9. Aided by another motorist, they guided the children to safety.
Ortenzo then saw the children’s mother, 31-year-old Rebecca Castelhano, crawling toward the driver’s window opening from the front, passenger seat. He returned to the car and helped her out of the window. An effort was made to remove the father of the family from the driver’s seat, but it was not successful.
The vehicle was shortly engulfed and the father and one child, a 3-year-old girl, perished. The mother and surviving children all recovered. Ortenzo was treated at a medical center for abrasions on an arm and both knees. He also sustained burns to fingertips on both hands.
The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the U.S. and Canada to those who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others. A total of 10,135 Carnegie Medals have been awarded since the Pittsburgh-based Fund’s inception in 1904. Commission Chair Mark Laskow said each of the awardees or their survivors will also receive a financial grant. Throughout the more than 115 years since the Fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, $41.3 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance.