Wanda Gail Schickling saved Richard I. Johnson and 13 other children from burning, Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 6, 1947. A bus, in which Richard, 5, and 27 other children aged from three to 13 were riding, was struck by an automobile; and gasoline in the 20-gallon tank of the bus poured out through a large puncture and caught fire. The driver and eight of the children got out through the doorway as flames reached a pool of gasoline spreading out under the doorway. Richard in fear stopped inside the doorway. Miss Schickling, 23, student, who was in charge of the students, handed Richard out to the driver and thrust out five more children. Flames suddenly rose 10 feet above the pool, and some extended a foot and a half inside the doorway. Dense smoke issued into the bus, and heat was intense. Men broke in two windows in the bus, and six children escaped through them. Miss Schickling kicked out a third window and handed six more children through it to a man. She felt heat searing her face and wrists; kept her eyes, which smarted, closed part of the time; and had difficulty breathing. She tried but was too weak to pull another child away from the seat to which he clung; but the man by reaching through the window did so; and he and Miss Schickling lifted the child out. She then thrust out the last remaining child; and she got her head and shoulders through the window, lost consciousness, and hung over the sill, from which she was removed. Firemen soon extinguished the flames, no explosion having occurred. Eight of the children were burned, two of them seriously; but all recovered. Miss Schickling was seriously burned, suffered severe shock, and was disabled for three months. 41338-3552
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