Bradford S. Rounds saved Escilda Amador from burning, Buford, Georgia, February 11, 1998. Ms. Amador, 97, was inside her family’s home after fire erupted in a first-floor bedroom and filled the house with dense smoke. Rounds, 29, deputy sheriff, was patrolling the area when he learned of the fire. He immediately responded to the scene, where he learned that Ms. Amador was still inside the house. Hearing her scream, Rounds entered the house through the kitchen door, then, in dense smoke which precluded visibility, followed her screams by crawling about 45 feet through the kitchen and a hall to a bathroom at the opposite end of the house. Rounds forced open the door to the bathroom, which was adjacent to the burning bedroom, and found Ms. Amador. He picked her up, then began to drag her through the hall toward the kitchen. En route, he became disoriented momentarily, but he succeeded in dragging Ms. Amador through the kitchen and outside to safety. There, Rounds collapsed. Both he and Ms. Amador were hospitalized for smoke inhalation, and they recovered.
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