Lifesaving Minnesotans honored by State Patrol

Deno Yannarelli was selling cars at Roseville Chrysler Jeep along Interstate 35W in Roseville last May. He was out on the lot when a truck ran off the road and struck an overhead sign.

The truck started on fire, and Yannarelli saw the driver.

"He was out, went back, and then the truck blew up and then he was just engulfed in flames," Yannarelli said. "And I yelled to him, and I jumped the fence. The highway fence. And he ran to me and he was engulfed in flames and I threw him on the ground."

Yannarelli was wearing a suit and tie. He put out the flames burning the driver by smothering him in wet grass, burning himself in the process. Then he dragged the injured driver away farther away from the fire, saving his life.

He said he doesn't know why he ran toward the burning truck that day.

"I was scared," Yannarelli said. "I'm scared right now thinking about it."

But Yannarelli's bravery got him a Meritorious Citizenship Award from State Patrol Chief Matt Langer on Thursday. The agency recognized seven people, more than a dozen officers from other agencies, five staff members and nearly 20 troopers.

They included State Troopers Zachary Borchardt and Nate Walton, who were on duty one evening in March near Mankato. They're credited with saving a suicidal man who drove his vehicle into the icy Blue Earth River.

The two troopers were standing beside Interstate 90 together looking at the Jeep, 30 or 40 feet from the bank, water nearly up to the roof.

Walton, a seven-year veteran of the State Patrol, said they couldn't see the driver.

"We made a call, we were going to enter the river," he said. "So we essentially, in our uniform, we put our life jackets on. The State Patrol issues us life jackets, so we put them on and we entered the river."

They waded out to the submerged Jeep, climbed on the roof and Borchardt, a trooper for year, said he broke one of the windows with his baton.

They pulled the man out and took him to the riverbank and hauled him up to one of their squads, standing nearby. They put him the back seat, gave him a blanket and turned up the heat. Although suffering from hypothermia, he survived.

Walton and Borchardt got a Meritorious Service Award and a new appreciation for why squad cars need personal flotation devices.

"I never thought I'd use it," Walton said.

"I never imagined I'd use it either. Lucky I still had it still in there in the back," Borchardt added.