These six heroes don't wear capes, they don't posses super human powers, and they don't have alter egos. They were just in the right place at the right time.

Gidge Martinez stopped to aid an injured pedestrian on his way home. Tristan Morgan, who was only 5 years old, called 911 after his mom passed out. Sheriff's deputies David Harkness and Timothy Axton rescued a driver who was pinned underneath his car after an accident. Michael Deyneka, an Auburn firefighter, pulled his team out of a burning building before it collapsed. Kathy Malenick, a daycare provider, chased a school bus that was dragging one of her children down the road.

Some of the nominees said they were only doing the job they get paid to do, and others said they only did what any other person would have done in the same situation. None of them believe they did anything special, but all six have been nominated for the Cayuga County Red Cross Real Heroes award.

“We are looking for someone who stepped out of their normal roll,” said Susan Marteney, executive director of the Cayuga County Chapter of the American Red Cross. “A good Samaritan or someone who risked their life to save someone else.”

Marteney said that nominees Martinez, Tristan and Malenick show that anyone can be a hero regardless of their age or job.

“I think we all have it in us (to be a hero),” Marteney said. “Maybe we haven't been challenged by a situation yet.”

An award luncheon, from noon to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, at the Holiday Inn, will honor this year's recipients, who rose to the challenge when confronted with a difficult situation.

With several nominations a year, Marteney said it can be hard to find people who qualify for the award. Recipients who qualify usually saved someone's life or used first aid to help a person in need.

“There are a lot of wonderful people who are nominated, and while they did great things, this is not the award for them,” Marteney said, speaking about people like teachers and mentors who are great role models but not Red Cross Real Heroes.

But one thing all the nominees have in common is they were not looking for fame or glory; they just wanted to do what they felt was right.

“Many recipients do not know they were nominated,” Marteney said, “And no one did it anticipating to be recognized.”

If there was ever a hero who proves age doesn't matter, it's Tristan Morgan.

Tristan, who is 5 years old, was watching TV with his mother, Darby Morgan, when she passed out due to a migraine complication.

“We were watching TV and she just went to sleep,” Tristan said.

Tristan knew he had to call 911 when shaking his mom failed to wake her up.

“I was crying, I didn't want to call 911 but I did,” Tristan said. “I had to.”

With a younger brother and sister, it was up to Tristan, a kindergartner, to take control and use everything he had learned about handling an emergency.

“I learned to call 911 at school and my mommy and daddy taught me,” Tristan said.

Tristan kept his composure under pressure and his actions prevented the situation from escalating, said Tristan's dad, Dusty Drake, who working during the incident. He said it would not have taken long for Tristan's two younger siblings to have gotten themselves into trouble by doing something like turning on the stove after their mom passed out.

Denise Stayton, an administrator for Cayuga County 911, said Tristan alleviated what could have been a very bad situation. A dispatcher could hear his younger brother yelling in the background as he jumped on his mom trying to wake her up. Tristan was able to calm his brother down until help arrived, Stayton said.

Tristan actions went above and beyond what anyone could have expected for a 5-year-old child.

“He called 911 and provided his address,” Stayton said. “A typical 5 year old wouldn't be able to do that.”

Tristan's actions make him a great role model for his siblings, Stayton said.

And while Tristan knows his parents are proud of him, he is still too young to understand why.

“At age 5, he doesn't understand the extent of his good deeds,” Stayton said. “But as time goes on, hopefully he will.”

Kathy Malenick may not be faster than a speeding bullet, but that didn't stop her from chasing down a school bus on foot.

Malenick, a day care provider, didn't know what else to do when she saw 5-year-old Skyler White being dragged down the road by the bus last March.

Distracted by a child who was causing trouble in the back of the bus, the driver had accidentally closed the door on Skyler's backpack, pinning her small body against the door as she was getting off.

“I didn't think he would hear me,” Malenick said, as she ran after the bus screaming for the driver to stop.

Suddenly the bus began to slow down after a child told the driver Malenick was yelling and chasing them.

To Malenick's horror, the driver opened the door as he slowed down, releasing Skyler from the bus's grasp. Malenick could only pray as Skyler hit the ground and rolled under the bus.

“Oh my god, I was so afraid she was not going to make it,” Malenick said.

Malenick lifted Skyler up from under the bus and ran back to her house to call 911.

Amazingly Skyler only suffered bumps, bruises and road rash when she fell out of the door, Malenick said. She also remembered seeing that the rubber soles of Skyler's sneakers had been rubbed off after being dragged against the pavement.

“We are just lucky it ended up the way it did,” Malenick said.

To this day Skyler refuses to ride a bus, Malenick said, adding that several of the children she watches carry their backpacks instead of wearing them when they get on or off the bus.

When she spoke about her efforts to save Skyler, Malenick downplayed her actions.

“It wasn't much of anything on my part,” she said. “I am sure there are more people who have overcome harder circumstances who are more deserving of this (award) than me. I didn't do anything any other human being wouldn't do.”

Steam crawled across Route 34 from the wreckage of a Dodge Durango resting on its driver's side door in 6 inches of water.

The passenger side was bashed in from the impact with a utility pole, the roof was crushed from rolling at least twice, and the rear axle was ripped off, leaving Jeremy Liddle, who somehow survived crash, pinned and drowning underneath his car.

Matthew Willis, who witnessed the crash, was already exiting his vehicle when Cayuga County Sheriff's Office deputies David Harkness and Timothy Axton arrived on the scene at 2 a.m. on an April night, unaware an accident had occurred just 10 seconds before they got to the intersection of County House Road and Route 34.

Harkness was curious when he saw Willis's car stopping and going before finally stopping in the middle of the road.

Axton remembered seeing the Durango lying in the corner of the field with what he thought was a dead body pinned underneath.

“Dave got out and ran down there with Willis while I notified EMS,” Axton said.

While Axton called for help, Harkness and Willis ran to the wreckage and saw Liddle in a puddle of water the vehicle had landed in. Both men lifted the vehicle enough to allow Liddle to pull his head back in through the truck's window.

“He was kind of like a human twizzler in how he was twisted out the window with his head pinned between the ground and the roof,” Harkness said.

Five minutes later, volunteer rescue personnel arrived and took Liddle, who suffered a broken neck, to University Hospital in Syracuse.

There was no doubt in Axton's mind that the quick actions of Willis and Harkness saved Liddle's life that night.

Both men admit if no one had seen the crash, Liddle may not have been found until sunrise.

“I'm not the one who should be recognized,” Axton said. “I had the chance to witness [Harkness and Willis] save another person's life.”

“I'm no different than the other deputies here,” Harkness said.

“I didn't want to be recognized. It's something we are trained to do. It's greatly appreciated but not necessary.”

Both deputies credited the volunteer medical crews who responded to the scene in just five minutes.

“They had an amazing response time considering they were coming from their houses in the middle of the night,” Harkness said.

The three Auburn firefighters were alone in the Highland Park Club House, surrounded by fire as it spread through the ceiling above and behind them.

A mistake switching radio frequencies during the fire on Sept. 4 had severed their lifeline to the firefighters on the outside telling them to get out before the roof collapsed.

Auburn firefighter Michael Deyneka led Adrian Humphrey and Kevin Donnelly toward the building's kitchen through the banquet hall, knocking out ceiling tiles on their way in to check for smoke and fire. When they arrived at the kitchen they found three firefighters from the Owasco department trying to find the fire.

The kitchen was filled with smoke, Deyneka said, but there was no fire, which meant it was in the ceiling. When the three Owasco firefighters left after running low on oxygen, the Auburn firefighters were left to handle the situation in the kitchen alone, unaware the building was already shifting.

“If we didn't have radio communication problems, we would of been out of there a lot earlier,” Deyneka said.

Instead it was up to Deyneka to make a call in the heat of the moment.

Humphrey noticed fire coming out of the inspection holes they made in the banquet hall alerting Dyneka the fire was above and behind them. Because of the buildings light weight construction, Deyneka knew they would have five to 15 minutes before the roof collapsed

“I made a decision to not press our luck,” Deyneka said.

After nearly 10 minutes in the building, the three men were contacted by Lt. William DiFabio, who had manually switched his radio until he found the frequency that his team was using.

DiFabio was getting ready to send another team in after his missing men when Deyneka told him they were on the way out. Five minutes after they got out of the building, the roof over the kitchen collapsed.

Deyneka said he did nothing special when he led his team out of the burning building.

“I had a lot of feedback from my crew who helped me make the decision to leave,” Deyneka said. “A lot of people did what they were supposed to do. The truck company did a good job opening the roof. Engine No. 2 did a good job getting a water source from the city.”

As far as being a hero, Deyneka said he was only doing his job.

“We were doing the job we are paid to do, expected to do,” Deyneka said. “I appreciate being nominated, but that's what we are supposed to do at work. Everyone was doing their job.”

The bystanders thought he was an EMT, but Gidge Martinez was just a good Samaritan who saw a woman in need of first aid.

Martinez was heading home after picking his wife up at work when he saw a truck pulled over next to a person laying the middle of the road. Martinez reacted quickly, grabbing his first aid kit and putting on his gloves as he jumped out of his car and ran over to administer first aid.

“Someone said here comes an EMT,” Martinez said. “Every one just stepped back and let me take over.”

The victim was bleeding from her nose and mouth after falling face first into the pavement when she lost her footing. For Martinez this was his first chance to really use the first aid and blood borne pathogens control and cleanup training he had received at Currier Plastics.

“I just tried to keep her calm and clean her up,” Martinez said. “I held her and comforted her until the ambulance got there.”

It's a huge responsibility, Martinez said, one that not everyone is capable of carrying out. Martinez said he knew of one co-worker who froze when confronted with a first aid situation.

“I didn't get nervous till I got in the car with my wife and was like 'holy [cow] I did it,'” Martinez said.

Martinez first got into first aid when he learned CPR as a Boy Scout. When he began working at Currier, he was asked to volunteer for their first aid and automated external defibrillator courses. As a result, Martinez said he has become the go-to guy on his shift whenever some one gets injured.

But helping the injured woman was the first time Martinez used first aid in an emergency situation, and he credited his actions to the training he received from his teacher, Brian Murphy.

While Martinez was proud of his actions that day, he stopped short of calling himself a hero.

“I'm not a hero, not at all,” Martinez said. “I am just an everyday guy who didn't mind helping out.”