Jon K. Thomas saved Paul P. and Andrew D. Marteeny from burning, Vancouver, Washington, January 6, 1991. Paul, 5, and Andrew, 3, were in a bedroom of their mother’s first-floor apartment when fire broke out in the living room. A neighbor, Thomas, 22, was alerted to the fire and ran to the scene, where he helped the boys’ mother escape through a bedroom window. Learning that her sons were inside the apartment, Thomas broke the window of their room and entered it. Dense smoke, which precluded visibility, forced him back out. After being given a wet towel, which he wrapped around his face, he re-entered the bedroom and searched it, finding the boys on a bed. Thomas picked one of the boys up, carried him to the window, and handed him outside. He then returned to the bed for the other boy, whom he removed in a similar fashion, before exiting through the window himself. Paul and Andrew were hospitalized overnight for smoke inhalation, and they recovered. Thomas was treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation and lacerations, one of which, to his right thigh, required sutures. He too recovered.
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