Michael Andrew Gilbert saved Christi A. Buchanan from burning, Columbus, Georgia, September 2, 1991. Miss Buchanan, 22, was in a bedroom of her mother’s one-story house when, late at night, fire broke out in another bedroom. A neighbor, Gilbert, 29, maintenance man, was alerted to the fire and immediately ran to the scene. He entered the house through the front door, but smoke and flames prevented him from reaching the bedrooms. After exiting, Gilbert broke out a window in Miss Buchanan’s bedroom and entered the house through it. He crawled through the smoke-filled room, feeling for Miss Buchanan, and found her. He grasped Miss Buchanan and dragged her to the window, then exited and pulled her from the house. Miss Buchanan required hospitalization for treatment of smoke inhalation. Gilbert also was treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation, and he recovered.
66209 – 7662
66209-7662