James M. Back saved Timothy A. McGowan and Michael E. Robinson from suffocation, Westerville, Ohio, December 21, 1975. At night, fire broke out on the ground floor of a two-story dwelling where Timothy, 9, and his stepbrother, Michael, also 9, were asleep in a second-floor bedroom. Among those attracted was Back, 28, carpenter, who climbed to the roof outside the boys’ bedroom and entered through a window. He crawled about the smoke-filled room until he found Timothy and Michael, both by then unconscious. Coughing from the smoke, Back experienced some difficulty in getting the boys to the window, where be handed them to other persons and then climbed out. Timothy and Michael recovered.
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