Patricia A. Desonia, 15, schoolgirl, saved Erma J. Eddens, 5, from burning, Helena, Montana, January 9, 1944. Erma, her mother, two other women, and three other children were in a room in the rear of the third floor of a building when fire started in the basement at the bottom of an elevator shaft. Miss Desonia ran to a rear entrance and up stairways to the room, told the women of the fire, descended to call the fire department, and returned to the room. Meanwhile one of the women and one of the children descended the stairways and went outside. Miss Desonia finished clothing Erma and led her into a hall in thick smoke. Flames were between her and the stairway. Breathing with difficulty and leading Erma, she ran 12 feet to an open window, climbed out on a fire-escape platform, and lifted Erma out. The others followed her and crowded down the fire-escape ladder. Flames burst out of the window and burned Miss Desonia’s leg. Placing Erma on a railing of the platform and climbing up beside her, she placed an arm around Erma and jumped 25 feet down to the roof of a shed. Miss Desonia sustained serious burns and other injuries and was in a hospital for six and a half weeks but recovered. Erma sustained neither burns nor injuries. The others who descended the fire escape were more or less burned. 40101-3363
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