Henry N. Bradfield saved Bonner D. Rivers, Jr., from burning, Moulton, Alabama, November 19, 1933. While Rivers, 19, was sitting in front of a stove 100 feet from the door of a Civilian Conservation Corps barracks building, another young man threw oil and gasoline from a can into the stove. Flames from the stove struck Rivers, temporarily blinding him. The young man threw the can aside, setting fire to the building, which was constructed of pine lumber, and to cots and bedding with which the building was filled. Rivers dropped to his hands and knees and reached a point 40 feet from the door, where he lay semiconscious. Meanwhile, Bradfield, 25, laborer, and others tried to beat out the fire, carried equipment out of the door, and then left as the flames advanced toward them. Dense smoke filled the building, and except over an area 20 feet from the door flames dropped from the roof to within five to six feet of the floor and extended from the walls to within four feet of the center. Hearing a cry inside the building, Bradfield entered the door, stooped, and walked slowly in an aisle between rows of cots toward Rivers. He pulled his jacket up over his head, groped along the floor with his hands, and reached Rivers. Skin sloughed off Rivers’s arm at his grasp. Taking hold of Rivers by his belt, Bradfield dragged him to the door. Flames then reached within 10 feet of the door, and as Bradfield and Rivers left the door, an occasional flame issued from the top of the door. Bradfield sustained no burns. Rivers was seriously burned but recovered.
33682 – 2831
33682-2831