Ronald E. Cole, 15, schoolboy, saved Samuel R. Robinson, 10, and four others from burning, Springfield, Ohio, September 26, 1954. At night while Samuel and his three younger sisters and a brother were asleep in a bedroom at the front of a one-story frame house, a fire broke out; and dense flames filled two adjoining rooms and spread to an attic above the bedroom. Ronald ran to the house but was unable to awaken the children by beating on a bedroom window. Finding the front door locked, he forced it open and entered the bedroom. Flames had begun to burn through the bedroom ceiling, and embers were falling from the ceiling at intervals. The heat was fairly intense. Ronald made his way eight feet to the large bed occupied by Samuel and the other children. He awakened Samuel, who got out of bed. Ronald gathered together the four younger children in a heap, wrapped his arms around them, and with difficulty lifted them from the bed. As Samuel held Ronald’s belt at the back, Ronald carried and dragged the others toward the front door, kicked aside a burning three-foot timber which fell in front of him, and continued outside. He removed the children a safe distance from the house. Firemen extinguished the flames, which badly damaged the house and burned away part of the roof. 43326-3983
43326 – 3983
43326-3983