BAR HARBOR – A local man is being rewarded for his heroics last winter in pulling a man from a burning vehicle on Eagle Lake Road.

Peter Alley, 46, is one of 16 people named Thursday as recipients of Carnegie Medals for heroism. A custodian at the town’s Connors-Emerson School, he is being awarded a bronze medal and $4,000 for saving the life of Gary C. Alley, no relation, on Jan. 13, 2006.

Peter Alley was driving home at 5:30 a.m. that wintry day when he came across Gary Alley’s pickup truck off the road. Gary Alley’s vehicle had hit a patch of black ice and hit a tree, leaving the driver moaning and semiconscious behind the wheel, suffering an injured leg.

Peter Alley tried dialing 911 on his cell phone but it went dead from low power as he was pushing the buttons to contact police. He also went to a nearby house for help and returned with a fire extinguisher but it turned out not to work, prompting him to reach through the window into the burning vehicle to grab the driver.

He pulled Gary Alley out moments before the gas tank caught fire and engulfed the vehicle and surrounding vegetation in flames.

It wasn’t the first time Peter Alley, whose 17-year-old son died in a fiery car wreck last year, acted quickly to help out others in danger.

A few years ago he found a friend collapsed from a burst appendix in the friend’s driveway and drove him to the hospital emergency room. Seventeen years ago, Alley and another custodian were burned while fixing a broken boiler at the school, but Alley was able to help his co-worker get away from the searing steam.

Peter Alley has said he doesn’t like using the word “hero” to describe himself. He says he’s just a man who has found himself in some unusual situations.

“Always charge your cell phone,” he told a reporter in January. “And always keep a fire extinguisher in your vehicle.”

The Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Hero Fund Commission meets five times annually to select award winners, using news reports or information submitted on its Web site to make its decisions. Each award recipient gets a bronze medal and $4,000.

Industrialist Andrew Carnegie started the fund in 1904 after being inspired by rescue stories from a mine disaster that killed 181 people.

Since the fund was established, 9,028 people have received medals and $28.8 million has been given out in individual grants, scholarship aid, death benefits and continuing assistance.

Read the complete list of Carnegie Medal recipients on www.bangordailynews.com.