Stephen M. Foster saved Robert S. Leech and rescued Hilda A. Frazier from burning, Indianapolis, Indiana, December 26, 2004. Leech, 92, and his wife Frazier, 79, were inside their one-story house after fire broke out in the attached garage and filled the house with dense smoke. Flames grew to overtake both an automobile parked in the garage and an enclosed breezeway that connected the garage to the house, at its living room. Foster, 43, contractor, who lived next door, responded to the structure after seeing it aflame. He entered the living room through a door off the breezeway and saw Leech standing in the kitchen. Foster went to him and tried to push him toward the door, but Leech fell. After Foster ran to the house’s front door and opened it, he returned to Leech and dragged him to that door. Others took Leech to safety. Foster re-entered the house, in which dense smoke by then precluded visibility, and began to crawl in search of Frazier. He found her about 10 feet from the door, then stood and pulled her to it. Others likewise took her to safety. Leech and Frazier required hospital treatment for smoke inhalation, and Frazier for burns. She died two days later. Foster was hospitalized overnight for treatment of smoke inhalation, and he sustained also a minor burn to a hand. He recovered.
78204 – 8998
78204-8998