Mary Haydon, 63, housewife, saved Betty Ann Hixon, 6, from burning, Oak Hill, Ohio, March 31, 1944. Betty was in bed in the one room on the second floor of Mrs. Haydon’s home when the house caught fire. Mrs. Haydon, who was outside, tried to enter the first floor but could not because of smoke and flames. After a man had ascended a ladder and broken a pane out of a window at one end of the room and had descended when dense smoke issued from the window, Mrs. Haydon ascended the ladder and by a blow with her hand enlarged the opening and then climbed into the room. In dense smoke and intense heat she groped along the walls around furniture on the floor for 27 feet to Betty’s bed. Lifting Betty, she carried her toward the window, walking for six feet along a stairway opening that had no railing to within three feet of the window. Becoming weak, she dropped to her knees and pushed Betty ahead of her to the window. A man climbed the ladder, lifted Betty out, and lowered her to the ground. Mrs. Haydon was helped out and down the ladder and collapsed. She suffered minor burns and was ill from smoke poisoning but recovered. 40548-3427
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40548-3427