Forest W. McNeir, 34, contractor and architect, saved Charles A. Rogers, 25, city fireman, from burning, Houston, Texas, February 12, 1910. Rogers was at the top of an aerial ladder when the cable supporting it came in contact with an electric wire and was burned in two, allowing the ladder to drop and catch Rogers’s foot between it and the stationary ladder supporting it. The ladder remained in contact with the wire, and a current of electricity of unknown voltage passed through parts of the ladder and the truck to which it was fastened, and Rogers was being shocked. Unable to release his foot, he was 35 feet above the ground, opposite a window from which flames and smoke frequently belched and enveloped him. After two firemen had attempted to go to Rogers’s assistance and been knocked away from the truck by the electricity, and the assistant chief of the fire department had warned his men not to attempt to scale the ladder, McNeir went to the truck and climbed the ladder to Rogers, McNeir’s hair being singed and his clothing scorched as he passed a window below Rogers. When McNeir touched Rogers, he received a shock that caused him to fall backward to the ground, his body striking and jarring the ladder as he fell. The jar enabled Rogers to release his foot, and he slid to the ground. McNeir was unconscious when picked up and was disabled six weeks, having sustained three severe scalp wounds and burns on his hands and face. Rogers was disabled four months.
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