Horacio G. Pino saved Kayla McDaniel from burning, Memphis, Tennessee, April 19, 2001. At night, Kayla, 9, lay unconscious in a bedroom in one end of her family’s mobile home after fire broke out in the laundry room at the opposite end. Pino, 34, deputy sheriff, responded to the scene. He and two other officers entered the mobile home for Kayla but were forced out by intense heat and dense smoke. Pino re-entered the structure and searched a bedroom and bathroom before finding Kayla in the other bedroom. Nearly overcome by the smoke, Pino grasped Kayla and dragged her out of the bedroom, then through a hall to the front door, where he collapsed. The other officers removed Pino and Kayla from the doorway and took them to safety. Kayla was hospitalized three days for treatment of smoke inhalation. Pino also was treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation, and he recovered.
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