TALK SHOW 'Montel' features area cops for rescue from truck fire

The episode will be taped next week in the Big Apple.
NILES -- Two city police officers who made news four years ago for rescuing a woman and her daughter from a burning truck will once again be in the spotlight.
Niles Patrolmen Chris Mannella and Tony Johnson will be taped for an upcoming episode of "The Montel Williams Show," a nationally syndicated talk show.
The men will tape the show Monday and Tuesday in New York City, said Maurice Guarino, city safety director. It's not known when the show will air, and details about the episode were still unclear, other than that it will include their involvement in saving the lives of two Vienna Township women in February 2000.
"It will be a survivor-type show," Guarino said. "They will be there to represent Niles' finest."
What happened
Mannella and Johnson were two of the four city officers and a state highway patrol officer who saved Penny Keyser and her daughter, Jennifer, after a head-on crash with another vehicle.
The women were driving on Niles-Vienna Road in a pickup truck when their vehicle was struck by a car. The impact pinned the women in the truck, which then caught fire.
Johnson was able to pull Jennifer out through a window opening, and Patrolman Jim Villecco used a fire extinguisher to put out the flames on her clothes.
Those officers, along with Mannella, Patrolman Craig Aurilio and Trooper Tony Stevens, were then able to free Keyser from the burning vehicle, which was eventually extinguished by fire crews from Niles and Weathersfield Township.
The four Niles officers were named winners of the annual Carmen DeChristofaro award that year, which is given to the city's outstanding citizen of the year.
All expenses involved with the trip will be covered by the show, Guarino said.
"The Montel Williams Show" is a one-hour talk show that airs at 4 p.m. weekdays on WYTV Channel 33.