SUTTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — A volunteer firefighter who died attempting to rescue a woman and her daughter after their vehicle went into the Elk River has been posthumously awarded the highest civilian honor for heroism in North America.
A Carnegie Medal for Heroism has been awarded to John Dean Forbush, 24, of Gassaway, W.Va., a four-year veteran of the Gassaway Volunteer Fire Department who died while attempting to rescue Latonya Bell, 42, and her daughter, Havana Pipkins, 8, both from Cleveland, Ohio, in May 2022, according to a news release from The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.
The award is considered the highest civilian honor for heroism in the United States and Canada…