Lonnie Arthur Williams, Jr., 17, schoolboy rescued Kathie Hall, 3, from burning, Nacogdoches, Texas, February 10, 1954. At night a fire broke out in a one-story frame house and burned through two walls of a bedroom occupied by Kathie. Her mother, after carrying a son to safety, tried to enter the bedroom from an adjoining kitchen but was burned severely and ran outside screaming for help. Lonnie and another youth ran 200 feet to the house. Informed of Kathie’s location, the other youth broke a window of the bedroom; and Lonnie climbed inside. The walls near Kathie’s bed were burning fiercely, and heat was intense. Groping through dense smoke which extended downward from the ceiling to within two feet of the floor, Lonnie reached the bed. He removed the blankets of the bed and felt over its surface but could not locate Kathie and withdrew to the window for air. He heard Kathie screaming and again moved gropingly to the bed. Kneeling within a foot of the flames, he extended his arms beneath the bed and found Kathie, who lay beside the wall. He drew her clear of the bed but was forced to breathe and inhaled smoke. He took Kathie to the window and handed her outside to the other youth. Raising one leg over the windowsill, Lonnie lunged from the bedroom and dropped to the ground. Firemen arrived shortly afterward and extinguished the flames, which badly charred the ceiling and walls of the bedroom. Kathie sustained bums of the face, bead, arms, and back but recovered. Her mother was hospitalized two months for treatment of her burns. Lonnie was nauseated by the smoke and suffered hand burns which healed. 43088-3920
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