Paul Joseph Pelky saved Shawn Campbell from burning, St. Petersburg, Florida, February 2, 1989. Shawn, six months old, was in a crib in the bedroom of his parents’ second-floor apartment when fire broke out in the adjacent living room. After learning that Shawn was inside the apartment, Pelky, 23, laborer, who lived on the first floor of the building, broke a living room window of the burning apartment and climbed inside. Despite the intense heat, Pelky ran into the bedroom and picked Shawn up. Unable to exit the way he had entered due to encroaching flames, Pelky broke a bedroom window with his fist and dropped Shawn into the arms of Shawn’s father. Pelky then climbed through the window and dropped to the ground. He required hospitalization for second-degree burns to nine percent of his body and cuts to his fingers, and he recovered.
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