Herman G. Stafinbil rescued Alice I. and Adeline L. Wutzke from burning, Lakeside, Montana, October 30, 1931. Alice and Adeline, 3-year-old twins, were in the living room of their home when fire started at one end of the room. The walls of the room were of logs, and the floors and ceilings were of pine boards. A hall, other rooms, and glass-enclosed porches surrounded the living room. Stafinbil, 42, stationary engineer, ran from his home, entered the hall, crawled seven feet through smoke to the kitchen, which then was in flames, and called. Receiving no response, he crawled to the outside door and ran to the opposite side of the house and entered the porch. With the aid of the girls’ father he broke open a door into the living room, ducked to avoid a burst of flame, and then through dense smoke crawled 10 feet to Alice. Flames extended from the ceiling to within three feet of the floor, the walls were burning, and burning pitch was dropping from the ceiling. The windows were beginning to break from heat. Holding Alice under him to protect her, Stafinbil crawled to the door and ran across the porch and outside. Although his wife implored him not to enter again, he ran across the porch and crawled 15 feet in the living room to Adeline. Holding her, he crawled over burning floor to a window which he mistook for the door, and then crawled to the door. Gasping from the smoke, he got to his feet and ran outside. Almost immediately the ceiling of the living room collapsed. Alice was slightly burned, and Adeline was unconscious and sustained serious burns. Both recovered. Stafinbil sustained slight burns on hands, face, neck, and back.
31749 – 2741
31749-2741