Norristown's Sanford Harling Awarded Carnegie Medal For Heroism

NORRISTOWN, PA -- Norristown's "boy hero," Sanford Harling III, has been recognized by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission for his heroic actions on that fateful day last February.

Harling, also known as "Man Man," rushed back inside his burning Markley Street home on Feb. 5, 2016 to rescue his father, Sanford Harling Jr., who required the use of a walker.

But his father, finding the first floor exit blocked off by flames, had made his way to the second floor, where he leaped from a window and landed in the grass, sustaining serious injuries but surviving.

Man Man, however, never made it out.

When firefighters re-entered the home, they found that he had died of smoke inhalation and thermal burns.

Harling was hailed as a national hero in the wake of the event, and the Carnegie Hero Fund has made it official by naming him one of their 20 heroes for 2017 on Wednesday.

Many of the other individuals who received the 2017 award were recognized for attempting to save victims from drowning, fire, or assault. Of the 20, Harling was one of only three who passed away in his act of heroism.

Harling's family will also receive a monetary grant - the exact amount of which was not disclosed - in recognition of his heroism.

In a "Deed of Trust" written out in 1904, Andrew Carnegie laid out in grand terms the need for recognition of heroes in our society:

"Gentlemen: We live in a heroic age. Not seldom are we thrilled by deeds of heroism where men or women are injured or lose their lives in attempting to preserve or rescue their fellows; such the heroes of civilization. The heroes of barbarism maimed or killed theirs. I have long felt that the heroes and those dependent upon them should be freed from pecuniary cares resulting from their heroism."

A total of 9,934 heroic individuals have been honored since the award's established 113 years ago.

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