Robert Richard Edwards saved Andrew W. Rose from suffocation, Indianapolis, Indiana, September 16, 1935. Rose, 55, was overcome by gas while attempting to leave the inside of a house furnace, connected to the flue of which was the flue from a coke fire in a near by water heater. The furnace was three feet in diameter inside and five feet high. The fuel-door opening was 33 inches above the floor and measured 13 inches by nine inches. A circular grate frame, from which the cross bars had been removed, rested on supports eight inches above the floor. The ash pit door opening was 14 by 16 inches. Rose lay with his feet outside the ash pit opening and his body partly on the grate frame, which tilted and blocked his removal. His helper tried to pull him out, but he could not reach the frame and was too large to enter the fuel door. He ran outside, and a boy returned to the furnace with him but refused to enter it. Robert, 17, schoolboy, was attracted, went to the furnace, and was told there was gas in it. He heard Rose’s heavy breathing. Stooping and breathing as little as possible, Robert put one arm and his head into the fuel door opening, and the helper raised him by the legs. Robert then worked his way through the opening, the helper pushing him, and stood on the bottom. He stooped, adjusted Rose’s arms, and then pulled the grate frame from under him. Rose dropped flat on his back in the ash pit. Robert worked the grate frame to the back of the furnace. Breathing with difficulty and somewhat dizzy, he stooped and took hold of Rose. He then was overcome and fell against the fuel door opening. Meanwhile, two policemen arrived. They got one of Robert’s arms and then his head and shoulders through the opening and pulled him out more than five minutes after he had entered. Other men pulled Rose out. Oxygen was administered to Robert, and he was revived. He was disabled for a week and a half. Rose also was revived, but his eyesight was impaired.
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