Perhaps nothing could be done to save the shuttle, but the crew could be saved by joining the orbiting space station.
And just how do you get the crew there? Beam them up? Too much Star Trek. The Shuttle didnt have the fuel to get to space station. Its basically a glider. Even if it miraculously got there, there is no way to get from the shuttle to the ISS. There is no docking collar on the Columbia and there is no teether so they couldnt do a space walk (had to make room for all those valuable science fair experiments). There are no space back packs with rockets to shoot you from one vehicle to the other.