Kenneth Lee Simmons, III

Kenneth Lee Simmons III, saved Carla J. and Pamela G. Updike from burning, Roanoke, Virginia, December 7, 1964. At night fire broke out in the living room of a house trailer in which Carla, 2, and Pamela, 1, were asleep in the adjoining bedroom. Kenneth, 14, schoolboy, saw flames rising above the trailer’s roof and ran 600 feet to where the mother of the girls was standing outside the living room door, screaming for someone to get her children. Kenneth stepped into the living room, where heat was intense and smoke was dense. He inhaled considerable smoke and began to feel nauseated. He crouched beneath flames on the ceiling and, keeping his eyes closed, groped his way to a passage which led through the children’s bedroom and the bathroom. A newspaper bag he had over his shoulder caught fire and was discarded. Kenneth passed the bed occupied by the two girls, who made no sound, and moved through the bathroom to another bedroom. Nausea overcame him, and he vomited. Hearing a noise, he returned to the children’s room. He probed the bed, found Carla and then Pamela, and picked up both girls. Kenneth searched in vain for another outside door and lost his way. Guided by the mother’s screams, he carried the girls back to the living room, in which the fire had spread rapidly. Kenneth crouched beneath the ceiling flames, carried Carla and Pamela to the door, and emerged from the trailer. Within minutes the living room ceiling collapsed, blocking the door. Firemen extinguished the flames, which destroyed most of the trailer.