Morgan Co man to receive Carnegie Medal

Georgia Congressman Mike Collins, the 10th District Republican who represents Athens in the US House, will be in Madison later this week, posthumously presenting the Carnegie Medal to the family of Thomas Hawk. Hawk was killed in December of 2022, trying to rescue his 13 year-old son from a burning home in Bostwick.

The ceremony is set for Thursday at the Morgan County Public Safety Complex in Madison.

From US Rep Mike Collins…

The family of Thomas Lee Hawk will be presented with his posthumously awarded Carnegie Medal at a ceremony scheduled for 3:30 p.m., Thursday, April 4, 2024, at the Morgan County Public Safety Complex in Madison, Georgia.

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia’s 10th congressional district will present the medal. Thomas Lee Hawk was posthumously awarded the Carnegie Medal in December 2023 after he attempted to save his son Eric T. Hawk from burning in Bostwick, Georgia, on December 16, 2022.

Eric, 13, was in a bedroom of his family’s one-story house when flames broke out in the attic of a storage room at one end of the house and spread. Eric saw smoke enter his bedroom and opened the door that led into a hallway, which was filled with smoke. He closed the door and called to alert his father, Hawk, 39, quality supervisor, who was next-door at Eric’s grandfather’s house. Hawk ran out of the grandfather’s house and to the burning house, followed by the grandfather. Hawk entered the house through a door that opened into the laundry room, which was next to the storage room. The grandfather attempted to enter the house through its front door, but could not open it. He then attempted to go in a door to the laundry room but could not due to the flames, heat, and smoke. The grandfather heard Eric shouting for help and went to his bedroom window. He removed an air conditioner from the window and pulled Eric through the opening, then dragged him away from the house. Eric suffered severe smoke inhalation and was hospitalized for a few days.

Hawk’s body was found in the hallway near Eric’s bedroom. He sustained burns to his body, and had died from inhaling smoke and soot. Hawk was the Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Hero Fund’s 10,397th hero.

The Hero Fund, established by Andrew Carnegie in 1904, has awarded the Carnegie Medal to 10,422 individuals in recognition of their outstanding heroism, defined by the Commission as acts of lifesaving done at extraordinary risk to the rescuer. Grants totaling more than $45 million have been given to the awardees or their survivors and include scholarship aid, continuing assistance, and death benefits. For more information about the Carnegie Hero Fund, please contact Jewels Phraner, Hero Fund director of outreach & communications, at 951-294-7285.

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