Aubrey G. Park saved Cynthia Lou Funk from suffocation, Oakley, Kansas, February 24, 1961. When fire broke out in the living room of a one-story frame dwelling, Cynthia Lou, 2, hid in one of the bedrooms. Her five-year-old sister, the only other person in the dwelling, left and reported the plight of Cynthia Lou to others, including Park, 42, automobile agency sales manager. With another man Park went to the dwelling. He entered the kitchen but was driven back by dense smoke. He then ran to the front of the dwelling, where dense smoke was issuing from a broken window of the living room. Park entered the dwelling, noting that flames were dimly visible through the smoke. On his hands and knees and holding his breath, he crawled across the living room, passing within eight feet of the flames. In a hallway he bumped into a wall and was forced to take another breath. He choked on the smoke, which was acrid with toxic fumes from two automatic carbon tetrachloride fire extinguishers in the living room. After hitting his head against the closed door of one bedroom, Park heard a noise in the other bedroom at the opposite end of the hall and crawled toward it. The door was ajar, and he continued into the room. He found Cynthia Lou inert on the floor, stood erect with her in his arms, and started out of the room, but walked into the door and fell. Holding Cynthia Lou under one arm, Park crawled back into the living room, choking and gasping for breath. He crawled past the flames to the front door, rose to his feet, and stumbled from the dwelling carrying Cynthia Lou. The flames were extinguished by neighbors and firemen. Cynthia Lou and Park recovered from effects of the smoke and fumes.
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