Emma L. Blizzard, 22, nurse maid, saved Euphemia C. Woodruff, 41, from drowning, Colebrook, Connecticut, June 24, 1931. While wading in water four feet deep near a sluice at the base of a dam in Sandy Brook, Mrs. Woodruff was pulled off her feet by strong suction, and she was carried into the sluice and wedged under the partly raised gate to her hips. Miss Blizzard, who was fully clothed, jumped into the pool from the dam and cautiously waded to Mrs. Woodruff. She repeatedly stooped under the surface and tried to pull or push Mrs. Woodruff through the 15-inch opening under the gate but without success. She then climbed to the other side of the dam and entered a narrow stream three feet deep that flowed rapidly through rough and jagged rocks from the sluice. She stooped under the surface and got hold of Mrs. Woodruff’s feet, lost her balance, and was carried four feet from the sluice. Returning to the sluice, she lay on her stomach on the bottom, and while holding her breath and bracing her feet against rocks, she turned Mrs. Woodruff on her back. Immediately Mrs. Woodruff drifted free of the gate, and Miss Blizzard grabbed her. Holding her, Miss Blizzard was carried 30 feet by the current to a slightly submerged rock. Mrs. Woodruff was unconscious but was revived.
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