Terence Michael Wiles helped to rescue Michael C. and Chad A. Turner from burning, Luzerne, Michigan, September 14, 2004. Brothers Michael, 12, and Chad, 10, were sleeping on the upper level of their family’s 1.5-story house after fire broke out there late at night and filled it with dense smoke. A neighbor, Wiles, 46, was alerted to the fire and immediately responded. He entered the house and ran upstairs, but the smoke and intense heat repulsed his repeated attempts to enter the upper level. Wiles exited the house, climbed atop a one-story extension, and broke out a window to vent the upper level. Retracing his course up the stairs, he entered the second level and found Michael, who lay unconscious in a cubbyhole extending the length of the house. Wiles pulled Michael from the cubbyhole through an opening in the wall and took him to the stairs, where he handed him to Michael’s father. Wiles then returned to the cubbyhole, found Chad, who also was unconscious, and moved him toward the opening, but he was repulsed by smoke and heat and returned downstairs. A sheriff’s deputy had responded to the scene by then. He went upstairs, found Chad, and carried him downstairs and outside to safety. Both boys were hospitalized for treatment of smoke inhalation, and Michael had second-degree burns to his face. Wiles was treated at the hospital for a cut hand and minor smoke inhalation. All recovered.
78101 – 8935
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