John M. Carlton helped to save an indeterminate number of persons from suffocation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 9, 1968. In a seven-story brick and concrete building occupied by retired persons, some of whom were infirm, fire broke out in the early morning on the second floor and began to spread upward. Carlton, 69, traffic broadcaster, was in a helicopter piloted by Richard P. Scholfield, and they proceeded to the area. Learning that evacuation of the building had been ordered by firemen, Carlton and Scholheld decided to land on the roof and warn the residents on the upper floors. Scholfield set the aircraft down cautiously in limited space on the roof, and Carlton immediately ran to a door leading to the building’s main stairway. Scholfield followed Carlton to the top floor, where they roused the occupants, aiding some of them to the elevators. When all seventh-floor residents had been evacuated, Scholfield and Carlton descended to the sixth floor. Smoke conditions there made it necessary for them to stoop in order to breathe. They proceeded to rouse occupants, who used the stairways after the elevators were halted. Some of the residents had to be assisted from their rooms. Carlton and Scholfield next descended to the fifth floor, where they met two firemen. Smoke was so dense that breathing was possible only within three feet of the floor. There were no flames on the fifth floor, but those on the outside of the building were visible through the windows. Scholfield and Carlton, with water-soaked towels around their necks, aided in rousing the fifth-floor residents and assisted some of them to the stairways. Other firemen arrived. Ordered to leave, Carlton and Scholfield returned to the helicopter. Flames on one side of the building’s exterior then were rising above the edge of the roof. Scholfield lifted the aircraft from the roof, despite heavy smoke. The fire later got out of control, and the building was totally destroyed. 50050-5454
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