2 Ojai Men Receive Awards for Heroism : Good Samaritans: Tim Donoghue and Bob Lemon are honored for risking their lives to rescue three victims of a fiery crash.

More than 10 months after their dramatic rescue of three people after a fiery crash on California 33, two men have been honored by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, officials from the Pittsburgh, Pa.-based commission announced Thursday.

Tim Donoghue and Bob Lemon, both of Ojai, were among 16 people nationwide to receive the Carnegie Medal for heroism and awards of $2,500 each. The awards honor people who have risked--or lost--their lives to save others.

Lemon, a fire safety engineer, was not available for comment Thursday.

But Donoghue says it still helps him to talk about the frightening sight that the two men came upon at 3 a.m. on Feb. 5 on deserted California 33 and the events that followed.

They were driving to Los Angeles International Airport, where Lemon was scheduled to take an early-morning flight, when they saw what appeared to be a small brush fire on the roadside ahead, Donoghue said.

As they drew closer, Donoghue and Lemon saw that the flames were coming from a car and that a man with a bloody face was standing beside it, waving them down.

“It was kind of a grotesque, Stephen King-movie kind of thing,” said Donoghue, 44.

When they pulled over, the two men discovered that a 19-year-old woman was trapped inside the burning car, her leg pinned between the passenger seat and the door.

Donoghue said he rushed to a telephone a few blocks away to call for assistance while Lemon helped the injured driver. When Donoghue returned, he reached into the burning car to try to pull the woman out.

“I remember I was kind of concerned wondering whether the whole car would go up” in flames, Donoghue said. “It was kind of engulfed. But I saw she was a normal-sized girl and I’m kind of a big-sized person, so I said, ‘I should be able to do this.’ ”

His first attempt was unsuccessful, said the 180-pound Donoghue. “It was real hot, and the dashboard was dripping on her jeans and sweater,” Donoghue said. On his second attempt, he was able to free the woman with Lemon’s help.

Seconds later, they discovered a third victim, a man who had been thrown through the windshield and was lying a few yards in front of the car. The man regained consciousness, became delirious and ran up the road. Both rescuers had to restrain him until paramedics arrived.

The three victims--Denise Reid, now 20; Dennis Honey, 20, and John Brown, 18--had been returning from Disneyland when Honey fell asleep at the wheel. Now fully recovered, the three have kept in contact with their rescuers. Reid and Honey, of Ojai, are expecting a baby any day, both said. Brown is a college student in Orange County.

“I think they really deserve it,” Reid said. “They definitely saved my life.”

The men have also been honored by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, the county’s Peace Officers Assn. and a state firefighters organization.

Donoghue, who works for a Ventura car dealership, said he has received training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and that Lemon is a trained CPR instructor. He called the two-minute rescue “one of the most extraordinary experiences in my life.”

“I feel there is a God, and he wanted us to be there and do what we did,” Donoghue said. “I don’t remember being afraid.”

Honey said he will always be grateful to Donoghue and Lemon. “The way I look at it,” he said, “there’s nothing that could repay what they gave us.”