Kyle V. Gibbs helped to save Diane S. Baxter from burning, Duncan, Arizona, August 17, 2013. Baxter, 69, was in a bedroom at one end of her mobile home after fire broke out at the opposite end, at night. Flames spread quickly and filled the structure with dense smoke. On duty in the vicinity, Gibbs, 36, deputy sheriff, responded to the scene minutes after being alerted; by then, flames had breached the roof of the house. Hearing Baxter scream, he ran to a point outside one of her bedroom’s windows and was joined shortly by two other officers from his department. Although Baxter was on a bed close to that window, the officers failed in their rescue attempts through the window. Gibbs and one of the other officers then broke another of the room’s windows, and Gibbs, aided by the officer, climbed through it into the burning structure. Despite dense smoke that precluded visibility in the room, Gibbs located Baxter, who was then unconscious, and lifted her from the bed. With difficulty, he dragged her to the window he had entered and maneuvered her head first through it, to the other officers. They lowered her to the ground and then aided Gibbs through the window to safety. Flames spread quickly to engulf the house. Baxter, Gibbs, and the other officers all required medical treatment for smoke inhalation, and they recovered.
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