Matthew Hill saved Charles D. Barker and Mark A. and Gregory F. Thornhill from burning, Pensacola, Florida, February 3, 1972. In a one-story building, fire broke out in the apartment where Charles, Mark Gregory, and two other small children were being cared for by a babysitter. The latter removed two of the children but was unable to get back into the burning apartment for the others. Among persons attracted was Hill, 46, metalsmith. Because flames were issuing from windows at both ends of the apartment, Hill went into an adjoining apartment and broke through the lightweight partition into the bedroom where the three children were located and to which the fire had spread. Hill crawled beneath dense smoke to the bed and found Charles, mark, and Gregory on it. He opened a bedroom window, handed one child outside, and then climbed out with the other two children. Charles, Mark, Gregory, and Hill sustained no burns, and they recovered from effects of the smoke.
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