Benjamin Martinez, 27, laborer, died attempting to save Edwin Rivera, 9, from burning, New York, New York, December 25, 1954. During the early morning a fire broke out in the second floor Rivera apartment, and the flames spread rapidly and ignited a wall of the bedroom in which Edwin was asleep. The lights in the apartment had gone out as the others in the family awakened; and they ran into an adjoining corridor, thinking that Edwin was with them. All but the father descended a stairway and ran outside. They were accompanied from the five-story building by Martinez and numerous other tenants. Remaining behind to try to save household furnishings, the father entered the kitchen at the rear of the apartment but was forced back into the corridor by dense smoke and intense heat. Informed by Edwin’s mother that he still was in the apartment, Martinez went back into the building, ran up the stairway to the corridor, and continued to the kitchen door. The father, who believed that all of his family had escaped, tried to restrain Martinez from reentering; but Martinez continued into the kitchen, disappearing from view as be made his way into the bedroom. The father followed Martinez but again had to leave the kitchen because of smoke and heat. Firemen who entered shortly afterward brought the flames under control and found Edwin and Martinez close together on the bedroom floor. Both were dead of suffocation and burns. 43373-3999
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