Nicolas E. Barrelet helped to rescue Juancio Irizarry from burning, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, January 28, 2005. Irizarry, 59, was in a second-floor bedroom at the front of a three-story row house after fire broke out in the room and set the bed aflame. Barrelet, 39, supervisor, drove by the scene and, seeing smoke issue from the bedroom windows, learned that Irizarry was in that room. He ran into the house and climbed the stairs to the second floor, but dense smoke there repelled him, and he returned outside. Barrelet re-entered the house, followed by another man who also had been passing by. They climbed the stairs to the second floor and proceeded through a hall to Irizarry’s room. Barrelet pushed open the bedroom door and found Irizarry lying on the floor, behind the door. Grasping Irizarry by an arm, he pulled him into the hall and with the other man took him to the top of the stairs. Together the men carried Irizarry downstairs, where they awaited the arrival of emergency personnel. Irizarry required hospitalization for extensive burns, and Barrelet and the other man were given oxygen at the scene.
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