Pat Smith, 19, schoolboy, helped to save Melvin L. Fowler, 8, and seven others from burning, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, March 20, 1965. At night fire broke out on the outside of a one-story frame dwelling in which Melvin, his six brothers, 1 to 10, and his father were asleep. A window broke, and the flames spread into the living room. Smith and Troy Dale Stephens saw the flames and broke open the front door, the only entrance. No lights were on in the dwelling, and they could see nothing in the dense smoke. Shouting to awaken the occupants, they groped their way to a bedroom where Melvin and three of his brothers were asleep in one bed. Flames had burned through at the ceiling and were spreading over the walls. Smith located the bed and found the four boys. A fifth boy entered from another room. Smith and Stephens took all five outside and then reentered the dwelling. The flames were spreading rapidly, and heat was intense. Finding no one else in the first bedroom, Stephens and Smith moved into the adjoining room and called loudly, awakening the father. He removed two other boys from a bed and handed them to Stephens, who passed them to Smith. The three men moved through the first bedroom where the flames were spreading rapidly and reached the living room which was almost completely afire. Carrying the two boys, Smith crouched and ran outside with the father following. Stephens shielded his face with his arm and also ran from the dwelling. Within seconds after they emerged, the living room ceiling fell. Firemen extinguished the flames.
47866 – 5071
47866-5071