Kurt Ernst saved Nina C. and Charles N. Troche, Jr., from burning, Rochester, New York, December 1, 1989. Charles, 2, and his sister, Nina, 6 months old, were in a bedroom of their family’s first-floor apartment when fire erupted in another room and quickly filled the apartment with dense smoke. Ernst, 31, meter reader, was driving in the neighborhood when he saw the fire. Seeing hands in a window of the bedroom, Ernst pulled himself up to the level of the window and broke out its glass. Despite dense smoke in the room and flames spreading nearby, he climbed into the apartment and, with visibility virtually obscured by smoke, found Charles about eight feet away. He took Charles to the window and handed him to a person outside, then turned back into the room and found Nina and the children’s mother on the floor. Ernst took Nina to the window and handed her outstide, then attempted to save the children’s mother. Arriving firefighters removed the mother and another of her children from the bedroom. Nina and Charles were treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation, and they recovered. Ernst also required hospital treatment for smoke inhalation and for cuts to his hand, and he too recovered.
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