Gainesville man receives one of 22 Carnegie Medals for 2013

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - In its first award announcement of 2013, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission Thursday named 22 people as recipients of the Carnegie Medal, including a Gainesville man who saved a blind man from a burning house.

Tray Hughes Ross, who was 20 at the time of the rescue, received the award for saving 76-year-old Harold Johnson, Jr. from a burning house on November 20, 2011. At the time, Ross was working at a poultry plant across the street from the house on Purina Drive in Gainesville.

Both Johnson and Ross suffered from smoke inhalation during the incident. Ross was treated at the scene by Gainesville emergency crews, while Johnson was hospitalized for a time. (See link to earlier AccessNorthGA.com article below.)

Ross currently is a recruit for the Hall County Fire Department, and according to Chief David Kimbrell, is in training classes this week.

The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the United States and Canada to those who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others, according to information from the Carnegie Hero Fund website.

The heroes announced Thursday bring to 9,598 the number of awards made since the Pittsburgh-based Fund's inception in 1904. In addition to a medal, each honoree also receives a financial grant.