First in a four-part series profiling Cayuga County Red Cross 2006 Great Heroes.

Randy Calhoun was driving along Route 34B in Genoa with his wife and daughter last winter when he came upon a terrible sight.

A car had crashed on the icy roads.

“The car was sideways in the road and smoke and fire were coming out of the engine compartment,” said Susan Marteney, executive director of the Cayuga County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Inside was Dennis Nardi, unconscious. The fire had not yet reached the passenger compartment, so Calhoun reacted quickly, pulling Nardi from the vehicle.

“I did for him what I hope and expect someone would do for me,” Calhoun said last year.

Cayuga County Sheriff's Office accident investigators determined Nardi's two-door car struck a four-door car driven by Marjorie N. Gulbe, 87, of Atwater Road in King Ferry.

Both were flown by helicopter from the accident scene to the hospital.

Nardi was driving south on Route 34B, just north of the intersection with Route 90 and Gulbe was heading north on the same road, Sheriff Rob Outhouse said at the time. Nardi's vehicle collided with Gulbe's in the northbound lane, forcing Gulbe's car into a ditch on the side of the road.

Calhoun said he was able to wake Nardi up and then get him out of the car. Nardi initially responded to Calhoun that he did not want to move because of his injuries.

“I told him, ‘I know you're hurt, but you can't stay in here,'” Calhoun said.

Shortly after the two were safely out of the vehicle, it was engulfed in flames.

“This very heroic, humanitarian deed by Randy Calhoun probably saved this guy's life,” Outhouse said at the time.

For his efforts, Calhoun will be honored as a hero March

29 at a luncheon at the Holiday Inn.

“He got Dennis out of the car,” Marteney said of Calhoun. “Dennis would not have survived if he hadn't gotten him out of that car.”