Leland McCauley, 30, brickmason, saved Charles F. Dennis, 2 months, from suffocation, Richmond, Virginia, December 7, 1955. While Charles was asleep in a second-floor bedroom, an airplane crashed near a corner of the Dennis house after the pilot had parachuted to safety. Flames rising 30 feet above the wreckage ignited the house and spread rapidly through the second floor. After removing her three older children from the house, the mother tried to reach Charles but found the stairway leading upstairs was blocked by flames and ran outside screaming for help. McCauley, who arrived and was informed of the plight of Charles, climbed 11 feet up a drain-pipe to the roof of a side porch. Ascending the sloping roof to a window of the bedroom he ripped away a screen and broke the window glass. A cloud of dense, black smoke issued from the bedroom. Holding his breath, McCauley stepped through the window into the bedroom. The flames on the second floor had spread close to the bedroom, and heat was intense. McCauley, who could see nothing in the thick smoke, groped 10 feet to the crib occupied by Charles. McCauley was forced to breathe and began choking. He found Charles and clasped the infant to his chest. McCauley, who had difficulty getting his bearings and felt about to be overcome by the smoke, made his way back to the window and stepped onto the roof. He extended Charles downward within reach of a man standing on another’s shoulders. Charles was passed to the ground by the man, who aided McCauley from the roof. Firemen extinguished the flames, which caused extensive damage to the house. Charles had inhaled no smoke. McCauley suffered hand cuts and was nervous for several weeks but recovered. 43692-4030
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43692-4030