Margret E. Frye, 15, schoolgirl, saved Glenn E. White, 7, and three others and attempted to save David M. Burns, 5, and three others from burning, Colville, Washington, October 18, 1950. At night while Glenn, David, and six other children were asleep in the second-floor bedroom of a house constructed of logs, fire broke out on the first floor and ignited the walls of the living room. Margret, who was staying with the children in the absence of their parents, ran upstairs and found Glenn, his sister,6, and the sister of David, who had awakened and climbed from bed. Margret led the children down the stairway to the living room and through an adjoining room to the back yard. Reentering the house, she ran to the living room. Dense flames covered the ceiling and the wall adjacent to the stairway, and heat was intense. Margret ascended to the bedroom, picked up the 3-year-old brother of Glenn, and carried him downstairs and thence outside. She again ran to the bedroom in which David and the other three children still were asleep. Margret awakened David and carried him to the stairway. As she prepared to descend, she saw that the stairway was blocked by flames. Kicking loose the screen of a window nearby, she told David to jump; but he refused, begging Margret to drop to the ground and catch him in descent. Seating herself on the windowsill, Margret thrust one foot outside. She lost her balance and fell from the window, her foot becoming caught in the screen. She was suspended head downward and hung from the window for approximately a minute, and her clothing was ignited. She fell five and a half feet to the ground, sustaining a broken arm and losing consciousness briefly. Reviving, she beat out the flames on her clothing. David and the other three children perished in the flames, which destroyed the house. Margret sustained severe burns of the arms, hands, legs, back, and neck and was hospitalized three months. 42121-3738
42121 – 3738
42121-3738