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Larry Pickett Sr. was driving with his family in rural Fort Montgomery, New York. It was after midnight on Aug. 31, 2025, and the Raleigh man was up north to visit his son and West Point cadet, Larry Pickett Jr.
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The family stopped when they spotted a man, David Denton, semiconscious in an SUV near downed power lines. Denton had veered off the roadway and struck a utility pole.
Two lines — the primary line carrying 12,000 volts and the secondary line carrying 200 volts — had fallen with the pole onto the vehicle and roadway. Denton could not get out. Onlookers gathered and called 911. Fire crews were on their way, but the Picketts realized they would not come fast enough.
“It was the point where if we didn’t react, he wasn’t gonna make it,” Pickett said.
So Pickett Sr. — a 46-year-old former cable TV show host and owner of multimedia company LarryPickett.com — and Pickett Jr. — a 20-year-old safety for the Army football team and Enloe High graduate — parked on the roadway.
Bystanders discouraged them from getting too close to the crash. They went anyway.
The Picketts escaped without injury. Denton recovered from the abrasions he suffered. And just over a year later, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission awarded Pickett Sr. the Carnegie Medal for heroism on Tuesday, the highest honor for civilian heroism in the U.S. and Canada.
Video of the “Picketts’ Charge” reached international virality in 2025. The rescue got covered on NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America and ESPN. Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell declared Dec. 10 “Larry Pickett Day” to honor the father-son duo’s heroism, ABC11, The News & Observer’s newsgathering partner, reported.
But as the world lauded the father-son duo’s heroism, Pickett Sr. had one nagging question: why were he and his son there before the firefighters? The answer he found led him to start a foundation to support first responders.
The Picketts stepped over a downed power line to advance to Denton’s car, according to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. Power lines lay on the vehicle with signs of electrical arcing beneath it. Flames engulfed the passenger side.
Pickett Sr. opened the driver’s side. He tried to remove Denton’s seatbelt. No luck. Tried again. And again. He got it loose on the fourth try. Together, the Picketts lifted Denton out.
But as they walked to safety, Pickett Sr. tripped and fell to the ground next to the car, inches away from a downed power line. He quickly got up, and he and his son successfully carried Denton to lay him in a safe, grassy area.
Seconds later, flames engulfed the entirety of Denton’s car.
Fort Montgomery Fire Department Chief Richard Salva and an electrical engineer, both of whom responded to the scene and put out the fire, agreed the car’s exterior and surrounding area should have been electrified. They could not explain how the Picketts escaped without injury or electrocution.
Salva told Pickett Sr. even if fire crews had gotten there before the Picketts, their training would have advised against doing what the Picketts did, and they would have turned off the power first before attempting rescue, Pickett Sr. said. But as flames engulfed Denton’s car, the Picketts decided they had no time.
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“The moment I touched that door handle, my heart should have stopped,” Pickett Sr. said. “Every time I read that, I tear up a little bit. God was there with me and my son in that moment.”
At the ceremony to cement Dec. 10 as Larry Pickett Day in Raleigh, Pickett Sr. turned the spotlight on the need to support first responders.
“If this type of accident happened right now, nobody would expect to call 911 and have Larry Pickett show up,” Pickett recalled from his remarks.
The ceremony made Pickett think back to the Fort Montgomery Fire Department. The fire station was less than a third of a mile away from where Denton crashed. But Pickett Sr. learned later that Fort Montgomery had a volunteer fire department, common in rural areas.
The firefighters had day jobs, and the station wasn’t staffed 24/7. Having lived in Raleigh with a full-time fire department, Pickett learned for the first time the constraints rural first responders faced, often relying on bake sales, barbecues or limited funding from FEMA to support operations.
“If you go to any small town, they can’t afford to just have people sitting around the fire station twiddling their thumbs to see if an accident is going to happen,” Pickett said. “They just have to rely on the volunteers.”
After the celebration, he called Salva and asked him what his department needed. Salva had plenty on his wishlist.
Salva estimated the new equipment would cost $17,700, spurring Pickett to start the Larry Pickett Foundation and start a fundraiser for the Fort Montgomery Fire Department. The foundation is also raising $30,000 for a volunteer fire department in Elk Township, Michigan.
Using his experience in video production and marketing at Fred Anderson Toyota, Pickett makes videos of firefighters explaining why they need donations to publish on the foundation’s website and social media.
As of Wednesday, the foundation has raised $5,500 for Fort Montgomery Fire. Pickett said he is meeting with a manager at a Charlotte wealth management company in hopes the manager will advise clients to make tax-deductible donations to the foundation.
For Pickett, his viral rescue was a “brief moment in my life” compared to the first responders who answer dangerous calls every day, he said. Still, the moment inspired Pickett to pause his multimedia work with local business to focus on his nonprofit.
Pickett funds the foundation entirely out of his pocket, so the financial grant the Carnegie Medal comes with will help him continue his work. A “brief moment” for Pickett has turned into a lasting mission for him.
“It’s volunteers who get out of their bed to risk their life,” Pickett said. “Then they wake up the next morning and go to a job to try to pay their bills. They’re not making any money supporting the community. So that’s why we want to [support them].”
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