Shawn Michael Bates saved Edward M. Baker and others from burning, Bessemer, Alabama, September 19, 1990. Late at night, Baker, 82, was in a sitting room of the boarding house in which he resided with 14 other persons when fire broke out in that room. An overnight guest, Shawn, 16, high school student, was awakened by a smoke alarm. He went to the sitting room, picked Baker up from the couch, which was aflame, and carried him toward the front door. Returning to the sitting room, Shawn alerted a resident in an adjoining bedroom, then fled the house with him, Baker, and another resident. Shawn re-entered the house, alerted six other residents, and led them outside, carrying one of them. Again he re-entered; he went through the burning sitting room, in which flames were spreading, to the bedroom of two other residents, whom he removed through a side door. Worsening conditions, which claimed the lives of the remaining four residents, prevented him from entering the house again. Shawn was treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation.
65241 – 7598
65241-7598