Leon I. Swartwood saved Clyde L. Krebs, Herman O. Berfield, James J. Russell, and four other men from an explosion, Wyside, Pennsylvania, September 18, 1919. Fire started in a building of a plant at which dynamite was manufactured. The building contained a large quantity of dynamite, and the three men employed in the building ran for their lives. One of them warned Swartwood, 30, shipper, who then ran some distance from the fire. Learning that the men in other buildings had not been warned, Swartwood turned and ran 1,300 feet to the buildings, passing within 100 feet of the building on fire. He saw flames and realized the building would be blown up at any time. He ran past two of the buildings, which were within 400 feet of the fire, not seeing the men in them and supposing they had left. He then warned three of the men who were about 550 feet from the fire. He learned from them that the men in the other two buildings had not escaped and returned to within 340 feet of the fire and shouted a warning to them. All the men fled, and Swartwood had got 800 feet farther away when the explosion occurred. No one was injured. The buildings in which the men had been working collapsed. 19996-1681
19996 – 1681
19996-1681