Brenda Beth Fagan, 16, schoolgirl, saved B. Bedelia Faeder, 73, from suffocation Brockville Ontario, November 9, 1965. In early morning fire broke out in a storeroom on the first floor of a three-story brick building where Mrs. Faeder who had a cardiac condition and was badly afflicted with arthritis, lived alone in an apartment on the top floor. Miss Fagan ran to the apartment entranceway and ascended to the second floor, where she encountered dense smoke. Unable to see in the unlighted hall, she probed until she found the third floor stairway. Coughing and choking, she made her way to Mrs. Faeder’s apartment in which there was smoke. Miss Fagan opened a window to get some air. She could see flames at the end of the building. Firemen arrived. A constable alerted second-floor occupants and attempted to reach the third floor but was prevented from doing so by the dense smoke. Pressure which had built up in the storeroom caused an explosion which shook the building and threw three firemen into the street. The smoke rapidly increased. Miss Fagan led Mrs. Faeder to the kitchen. No lights were on in the apartment, and Miss Fagan had to feel her way around the furniture to the door of a porch overlooking the flat roof of an addition at the back of the building. She unlocked the door with some difficulty and drew Mrs. Faeder onto the enclosed porch. Both Miss Fagan and Mrs. Faeder were coughing and choking severely as they emerged onto the roof, one end of which was afire. As they were moving across the roof, an interior wall in the storeroom collapsed with a loud noise. Miss Fagan and Mrs. Faeder reached a fire escape at the rear of the building and descended to the ground. Following the explosion flames spread rapidly throughout the building, and the fire raged out of control for hours. Additional fire companies were called, but the building was completely destroyed, as was an adjoining structure.
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