Selflessness = Heroism

Often times heroes are portrayed as knights in shining armor saving the damsel in distress, or the gun toting person whose bullet killed the evil that's planning to take over the world. My question is what about firefighters or the men and women that have sacrificed time with their families to find a cure of numerous diseases? Aren't they more heroic than the typical run of the mill fairy tale?

My aunt's husband (I guess that makes him my uncle, huh?) -- let's call him Jimmy--recently saved nine people from death. In the process 25% of his body was severely burned and because his burns were caused by propane he's still burning. They have to debried* him three times a day. I can't fathom the pain he must be in.

Jimmy works with propane. When a truck came in the fill up, he noticed there was a hole in the hose. The trucker (let's call him boy genius) ignored Jimmy, calling him names and saying he didn't know what he was talking about. So Jimmy (being as he's too far away to physically do anything about boy genius) starts running toward the tank, knowing that it was going to blow and hoping to turn off the fire before it does.

Finally he reaches it and turns it off, but the fumes that were coming out of the hole blew and he was engulfed in flames. Had he not done this the tank would've blown up which would have, in turn, blown up the propane truck leaving all nine bystanders, including boy genius, dead. His co workers quickly put him out, throwing snow on him. One of them had burn salve in his truck and, against Jimmy's pleas, they rubbed him down with it (Later physicians said it was the best possible thing to do at the time... I guess that makes two heroes :D).

He thought he was going to die, but he didn't care. He did what he could to save the lives of the people around him. To make a decision like that, in the few seconds it took, is my idea of heroism.

Unlike like the fairy tales I grew up on, this story doesn't end happily. Despite being alive Jimmy is in a world of hurt. Not only that, but the trucker responsible for the accident simply got back into his truck and drove away. He left him for dead. What kind of person can do something like that? I don't have it in me to be that selfish. I'd like to think no one does, but obviously that's a naive thought. Wishful thinking... fat lot of good that does.

Anywhozzle... I just wanted to share that with everyone. There are heroes in this world and I'm proud to say I know one.

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*Debried: When metal bristled brushes and iron scrubbers are rubbed against the injured part of the body to effectively get it clean.