Ooo! I have a story!
This involves a coworker named George S.
Back in the middle 80’s, George worked for the phone company as a maintenance splicer, working gas pressure and cable locates. George would open manholes and try to track down air leaks caused by old or poorly assembled splice cases.
Anyway, he was set up on a manhole in the #2 of 4 lanes on Folsom, a major street in San Francisco, which heads straight downtown. This is a one way street.
While he was standing at the top of the manhole, he saw an explosion from a van approaching him.
This unmarked van, which was Government, was improperly transporting explosive gas. The tanks were rolling around on the floor of the van, rather than being secured standing up. One of the takes rolled into another, causing the top controller to crack, releasing explosive gas all over the floor of the van. The driver, unaware, was smoking a cigarette. He threw the butt to the floor, igniting the gas, and blowing the driver out of the vehicle. The van, now driverless and on fire, continued down the street towards my friend George.
George was an ex-Marine. He ran alongside the van, jumped in, and stopped it. The driver ran up and screamed for him to exit the vehicle, because it was on fire, and had lots of explosive gas tanks inside.
George kept his cool. He ran to the back of the burning van, opened the doors, and jumped in, and began throwing out all the tanks.
When he finished, he jumped out of the vehicle, and the fire department put the fire out.
George saved a major catastrophe from occuring. Imagine that van, heading straight for the financial district, hitting a building and exploding. George suffered some burns on his eyes, but he was able to return to work.
When the Company found out, they suspended him for behaving recklessly in a dangerous situation. They said he should never have gotten in the van to stop it, and never have removed the tanks.
Suspended!
Then the newspapers got wing of it, and suddenly the Company changed its mind. They gave George a bronze bravery award (wonderful, but only 3rd rate!).