Kortnie Balls is being awarded the Carnegie Medal, considered North America's highest civilian honor for heroism, for attempting to save a man from a burning building one year ago.
POCATELLO, Idaho — Black smoke hung over Kortnie Balls' head as she army crawled through the burning home. She held her jacket over her mouth and nose, trying to avoid breathing in more smoke then she already had.Balls could hear explosions coming from the back of the trailer as she crawled through the house. Oxygen tanks were being consumed in the fire, adding to the flames.
But shortly after the March 23, 2022, fire, she was approached by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission about receiving the Carnegie Medal. "I didn't really believe that it was happening," Balls said. On March 26 of this year, she received a voicemail informing her that she had won the medal, and she dropped her phone on the ground in disbelief before she'd finished reading the transcript.From her time growing up in Inkom, she was used to the pace of life being slow. While she thinks it's a beautiful place, she works in Pocatello, and that's where her friends are.
Balls grabbed a chair from the front porch and hit the window until it broke so the smoke would flow out the window. Meanwhile, Evans got the door open, and a little dog ran out of the house. Three sheriff's deputies ran up to them. They grabbed Sergi and pulled him the rest of the way off the porch as the oxygen tanks continued to explode.
Karen Aguilar, Pocatello Valley Volunteer Fire Department chief, said her crew was there "to control the fire from spreading to other trailers." Once they had gotten Sergi away from the fire, he suddenly pulled Balls over to him to ask her a question."Even though his house was completely gone, he just needed his inhaler," Balls said. She thinks Sergi must have been in shock after what they had just experienced together.
"One of the ladies was like, 'Oh, he didn't even make it,'" Balls said. "So, of course, I broke down again." In the months afterward, Balls felt changed by what she experienced that day. There have been times when Balls returned to that trailer court to see her friend, and she thinks for a moment that she'll have to do the same thing again.
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