Dwayne E. Smeltzer saved Franklin K. McCarty from burning, Windsor, Pennsylvania, August 27, 1990. Franklin, 1, was in a second-floor bedroom of his mother’s house when fire broke out in the basement and spread quickly, filling the house with smoke. A neighbor who was driving nearby, Smeltzer, 28, steelworker, saw the flames and smoke and stopped at the scene, where he learned from Franklin’s mother that Franklin was still inside. Smeltzer climbed onto the roof of the front porch, broke a second-floor bedroom window, and entered the house. Crawling through the smoke-filled second floor, whose layout was not familiar to him, Smeltzer located Franklin’s bedroom and removed him from his crib. Smeltzer attempted to exit the house the way he had entered, but dense smoke precluded his finding the bedroom door. Smeltzer then went to a window of Franklin’s bedroom, called to the mother, and dropped Franklin 15 feet into her arms. Smeltzer himself then climbed through the window, dropped to the ground, then, coughing, crawled away from the burning house. Franklin was examined at the hospital for smoke inhalation. Smeltzer was treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation, and he sustained also lacerations to his back and hands. He fully recovered.
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