William F. Schlenker, 44, film coater, saved Christopher J. Adams, 7, and helped to save Jeanne E. Adams, 33, from burning, Irondequoit, New York, December 27, 1956. At night while Christopher was asleep in the rear bedroom of a one-story frame house, a violent gas explosion in the cellar demolished much of the dwelling. Wearing only pajamas, a robe, and slippers, Schlenker ran from next door and entered the ruins, where flames then rose from debris in the cellar and burned on the wall between the kitchen and an integral garage. At Schlenker’s call Christopher, who had not been harmed, emerged from his bedroom. Schlenker carried him to the front of the house and handed him to another man who had been attracted. Moving back into the ruins, Schlenker called to Mrs. Adams, who had been in the cellar and had crawled part way up a stairway leading to the kitchen. She answered Schlenker, who made his way through the debris to the stairway as flames burned upward three feet on the garage walls. He crawled beneath heavy debris which blocked the top of the stairway and with great effort raised it two feet by lifting on loose joists beneath it. Supporting the joists on his shoulders, he grasped Mrs. Adams with one hand and pulled her to him. She crawled from beneath the debris and was carried through a hole in the kitchen wall by the other man, who meanwhile had returned to the house. Flames from the basement lapped at the sides of Schlenker as he crawled from beneath the debris. As Schlenker left the dwelling, flames engulfed the house. Firemen extinguished the flames in an hour, and only one corner of the dwelling remained standing. Christopher was uninjured. Mrs. Adams and Schlenker suffered lacerations and minor burns. Both recovered. 44011-4126
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