Richard H. Grimm

Richard H. Grimm, 40, oil-well supply salesman, died as the result of rescuing Pauline E. Finnie, 31, from burning, Foster, Oklahoma, August 11, 1948. While Mrs. Finnie, Grimm, and three other persons were near an oil-well into which mud was being pumped to bring it under control, they were enveloped in flames six to ten feet high when gas escaping through crevices in the ground ignited. All except Mrs. Finnie, who fell and lay inert, ran out of the flames. Grimm extinguished the fire on his clothing by rolling on the ground and then ran back thirty feet through the flames to Mrs. Finnie. Heat was blistering. Grimm took hold of Mrs. Finnie and dragged her to the edge of the fire, where the flames were scattered and four feet high. There she slipped from his grasp, Grimm stumbling and falling beyond the flames. Two other men dragged Mrs. Finnie out of the fire. She suffered burns over her entire body and died the same day. Grimm was severely burned and died three days later.