Barry Pitt rescued Willard E. Burgess from burning, Draffenville, Kentucky, May 5, 1998. Burgess, 69, was inside his mobile home after fire erupted there and spread in the kitchen and living room. The fire was discovered by a neighbor boy, who then alerted another neighbor, Pitt, 37, machinist. Pitt responded to the scene and, despite intense heat inside the mobile home, entered the structure through the front door. He crawled about 15 feet through dense smoke in the burning living room, or to where he found Burgess lying on the floor. Pitt grasped Burgess about the belt and pulled him to the front door, then onto the porch. He carried Burgess a distance away from the burning structure, then, because of increasing heat, moved him farther away. Burgess was hospitalized for treatment of extensive and serious burns and died four months later.
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