Paul Galotti

Paul Galotti saved David Martinez from burning, Easthampton, Massachusetts, May 15, 2022. Martinez, 61, who used a wheelchair because of mobility issues, was inside his basement apartment in a three-story, multi-family building when fire broke out in his bedroom and the apartment filled with dense smoke. Martinez was unable to leave via a door to the backyard because of nearby flames, so he exited the apartment and moved to the opposite side of the basement, where he stopped near the bottom of a stairway that led to a front door of the building. Galotti, 38, environmental coordinator, lived across the street and was alerted to the fire. He ran to the building, where he saw flames issuing through the broken windows of Martinez’s bedroom and spreading to an exterior wooden stairway. Galotti entered through a front door into a foyer, then opened the door to stairs leading to the basement. Black smoke poured out through the door and Galotti shouted down the stairway. Martinez responded and said he was in a wheelchair and needed help. Galotti descended the stairway, where there was no visibility. He went a few feet and, unable to breathe, went back up the stairs and exited the building through the front door. Galotti pulled his shirt over his nose and mouth and returned to the basement, where he found Martinez about 12 feet from the bottom of the stairway. Galotti lifted Martinez from the wheelchair, put him over his shoulder, then went back up the stairway and outside. By then, the exterior, wood stairway was completely engulfed by flames, which rose to second-floor windows. Martinez was not injured. Galotti inhaled smoke; he recovered.