Major Augustus Fisher died attempting to save Cynthia M. and Christian A. Davis from burning, New Bern, North Carolina, September 9, 2000. At night, Ms. Davis, 42, and her son Christian, 1, were in a second-floor bedroom of a two-story house after fire broke out in a bedroom on the first floor. The house was owned by Ms. Davis’s father, Fisher, 80, retired auto mechanic, who was in another bedroom on the first floor. Awakened to the fire by family members, Ms. Davis responded to the first floor then returned to the second for Christian as the others fled the house. Worsening heat and smoke prevented her from returning to the first floor with Christian. Asking of Ms. Davis’s whereabouts, Fisher re-entered the house through the back door. Ms. Davis, meanwhile, was escaping with Christian through a second-floor window on the side of the structure. Family members then searched for Fisher but deteriorating conditions thwarted their entering the house. Firefighters who arrived shortly found Fisher inside the house, on the first floor near the stairs. He had died of smoke inhalation. Ms. Davis and Christian required hospital treatment for smoke inhalation, and Ms. Davis sustained a sprained ankle, lacerations, and contusions. They recovered.
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