It was Christmas Day and Donald E. Thompson was headed to work as a police officer when he watched a station wagon collide with a retaining wall, skidded across a Los Angeles freeway, and erupted in flames, 20 to 30 feet high.

Thompson knew that the driver wouldn't be able to extricate himself on his own so he approached the car, but by then it was a wall of heat and flames. As he used the driver's door as a shield and reached across the unconscious driver to unbuckle his seatbelt, Thompson only had one thought:

"Is this the way I'm going to die? In a fire Christmas day? Is this how life ends for me?"

Listen to see if Thompson can pull off a Christmas miracle.

For more about Don Thompson visit his page at carnegiehero.org.

Fear on Hold is produced by the Carnegie Hero Fund, Big Science Pods, and Bill Garrison.

To nominate someone for the Carnegie Medal: https://www.carnegiehero.org/nominate/investigative-process/
To search the database of more than 10,000 Carnegie heroes: https://www.carnegiehero.org/heroes/search-heroes/
To learn more about the Hero Fund: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLRhEnfJ3As

Logo Design: Dave Hughes
Video Production: Untitled Content
Art Direction: Dan Minskey
Media Planning: GH Advertising
Music: Jay Green
Narration: Rebecca Senneway

Clerc Higgins Cooper was just 14 when she and two friends sailing a 19-foot Flying Scot came upon a swamped boat on Lake Pontchartrain.

"It was a very windy day, and Lake Pontchartrain is really long, 26 miles to the north. And so when the wind blows from the north, the waves just get bigger and bigger as they come toward the south. So by the time they get to the south shore, which is where we were sailing out of, the waves can get really big. So it was windy, wavy, and pretty cold," Cooper, now 29, sets the scene in the episode.

As they approached the boat, its three occupants where in the water struggling to stay afloat.

"As soon as I realized that these people were not strong swimmers and that their boat was no longer acting as a vessel to keep somebody afloat, that's when I realized that this was a bad situation," Cooper said. "My name is Clerc Higgins Cooper, and I put fear on hold when I threw my life jacket to a struggling swimmer and jumped in the water to help two more."

Listen to the story of 14-year-old Clerc Higgins Cooper who helped save three people from drowning after their boat swamped and capsized on Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans.

For more about Clerc Higgins Cooper, visit their hero pages at carnegiehero.org.

Fear on Hold is produced by the Carnegie Hero Fund, Big Science Pods, and Bill Garrison.

To nominate someone for the Carnegie Medal: https://www.carnegiehero.org/nominate/investigative-process/
To search the database of more than 10,000 Carnegie heroes: https://www.carnegiehero.org/heroes/search-heroes/
To learn more about the Hero Fund: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLRhEnfJ3As

Logo Design: Dave Hughes
Video Production: Untitled Content
Art Direction: Dan Minskey
Media Planning: GH Advertising
Music: Jay Green
Narration: Rebecca Senneway

A 2014 community barbecue in Yonkers, New York, turned tragic after a 5-year-old boy entered the Hudson River and was seen floating away from shore. Alerted to the situation, Boyce Coleman, of Yonkers, and Jenna Fanelli, of Elmsford, New York, climbed a fence along the bank and entered the river.

"Everyone was screaming. It was like 200 people lined up screaming for help. They were saying, 'Get a rope! Get a rope! He needs to get a rope!' but obviously nobody had a rope," Fanelli recounts in this episode.

Both of them reached the boy, but bringing him back to the bank meant swimming one-handed against the swift tidal current.

Listen to the story of the rescue of 5-year-old Stephen Jones from drowning in the Hudson River.

For more about Jenna Fanelli and Boyce Coleman, visit their hero pages at carnegiehero.org. 

Fear on Hold is produced by the Carnegie Hero Fund, Big Science Pods, and Bill Garrison.

To nominate someone for the Carnegie Medal: https://www.carnegiehero.org/nominate/investigative-process/
To search the database of more than 10,000 Carnegie heroes: https://www.carnegiehero.org/heroes/search-heroes/
To learn more about the Hero Fund: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLRhEnfJ3As

Logo Design: Dave Hughes
Video Production: Untitled Content
Art Direction: Dan Minskey
Media Planning: GH Advertising
Music: Jay Green
Narration: Rebecca Senneway