Samuel G. Ragland saved Harold C. Brown from burning, Jacksonville, Florida, December 15, 1964. At night fire broke out at a kerosene tank attached to the outside of a one-story frame dwelling in which Harold, 11, was asleep in the rear bedroom. Flames burned through the bathroom wall. Finding flames spreading rapidly in the bathroom, which provided the only access to the rear bedroom, the owner and his wife were leaving through the front door when a neighbor, Ragland, 41, railroad shop worker, arrived and learned that Harold still was inside. Ragland pulled his suit coat over his head and entered the dwelling. Familiar with the interior arrangement, he ran to the bathroom through increasing smoke and heat. Flames had spread over the entire ceiling of the room, and heat there was intense. Passing within two feet of the flames, Ragland went through the bathroom and into a storage area connected to the rear bedroom. Just then the bathroom ceiling caved in, spreading flames on the floor. In the rear bedroom, where smoke and heat were increasing steadily, Ragland located the bed and picked up Harold. Finding that flames already filled the storage area, Ragland carried Harold to a window of the bedroom and pulled off the blind. Probing, he found a portable sewing machine and used it to break the heavy glass. By then flames had broken through into the bedroom and heat had become intense. Ragland found a blanket and placed it over the window sill to cover the broken glass. He climbed onto the sill and, holding Harold in his arms, jumped five feet to the ground, his coat smoldering. Firemen arrived, but the dwelling was completely destroyed before the flames could be extinguished.
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