Ora Robert Pope, 36, truck maintenance supervisor, saved Janet L., 10, and E. Lucille Jeffries, 8, from burning, Waldron, Indiana, November 14, 1945. Janet and Lucille were asleep in a room on the second floor of a building when fire started on the first floor from an explosion of a can of kerosene that Pope was about to use. Heavy smoke and intense heat rose in a stairway that extended up to the room occupied by the girls. The girls and Pope’s four young sons, who occupied another room on the second floor, ran to the stairway but were afraid to descend. All went to a window, which was 15 feet above the ground; and the window was opened. Pope, who had sustained second and third degree burns over most of his body, meanwhile ran to a point below the window; and extending his arms, he induced the girls and then the boys in turn to drop from the window-sill, all being caught by Pope. As he caught each child, flesh sloughed from Pope’s hands. None of the children was injured. Pope died three days later from his burns. 40568-3431
40568 – 3431
40568-3431