Amos Paul Cardoza saved Marc R. Lambert and four others from suffocation, Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, December 22, 1981. Lambert and other cadets were aboard a docked training vessel when fire broke out in the engine room, killing one. With dense, acrid smoke and intense heat blocking their only known escape route, Lambert and four other cadets huddled below a fresh air duct. Cardoza, 38, painter, approached the engine room through the ship’s shaft alley. He crawled about 25 feet into the smoke-filled room, calling out for the cadets. Guided by his voice and seeing his flashlight, the cadets ran to Cardoza, then past him to the shaft alley, from which they climbed to the safety of the ship’s main deck. Cardoza followed. The cadets were treated for smoke inhalation and burns; they recovered. Cardoza was treated for smoke inhalation, and he recovered.
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