HOUSTON — A Houston mother of three who died trying to save her baby from their burning home is being awarded North America's highest honor for civilian heroism.
Giovanna Cabrera, 31, and 17 other Americans were named 2024 Carnegie Medal recipients. The award recognizes acts of extraordinary heroism by people who risked serious injury or death to save others. Cabrera and five other honorees received the award posthumously because they died while trying to save others.
Early the morning of February 3, 2024, a fire started in the living room of Cabrera's north Houston home. She helped her 9-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter get out of the burning home. The boy said he saw his mom heading to the room where 1-year-old Gabriel Peña was sleeping in his crib. She never made it out. Firefighters found Cabrera and her son dead inside the bedroom.
"She grabbed him, she died with him in her arms," Cabrera's sister, Giselle Bueno, told KHOU 11 that day. "I just think what went through her head, how scared she was and that she was by herself."
Records show Cabrera called 911 but the call was disconnected. The older children ran to a neighbor's home for help.
David Santos said all they could do was stand there and watch.
"So hot you could feel it over here in the street -- up to the door of my house," the neighbor said. "So, there was nothing anybody could do.”
The family lived in the home with the children's grandparents who were out of town when the fire broke out. Bueno said they considered taking the children to Mexico with them but Cabrera decided they would stay home with her instead.
"And everyone is calling her a hero," Bueno said. "I know that she’s just looking at us and she’s happy and proud, even though she didn’t make it, that everyone is trying to help.”
One other Texan, 51-year-old Albert Evans, of Lufkin, Texas, received the Carnegie Medal.
Evans and his wife were camping along the Sabine River near Merryville, Louisiana when they were alerted that several people were struggling in the water.
Evans swam out to Aria Briggs, 27, and her daughter, 6-year-old Evangeline Fountain, and helped them get to shore. Then Evans went back into the river with a two-seat float and was able to reach 7-year-old Keeley Bailey who was clinging to a branch.
A third child, 4-year-old Bently Fountain, and Keeley's father drowned. He and two other men who died while trying to help rescue the victims also received Carnegie Medals.
Each recipient or their survivors will receive a financial grant. Throughout the 120 years since the fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, more than $45 million has been given in grants, scholarships and death benefits.