Benjamin McAuliffe helped to save Lillian R. Anderson from burning, Oak Grove, Minnesota, September 7, 2015. Anderson, 80, was asleep in her bedroom, on the upper level of her split-level house, after a fire broke out in the kitchen, on the main level. Requiring a walker, she attempted to flee but fell in the hall outside her bedroom, from where she called 911 for help. McAuliffe, 31, emergency medical technician, and a coworker, dispatched to be on standby at the scene, arrived before firefighters, finding dense smoke issuing from the house. As his coworker entered the house through the front door, McAuliffe went to the side of the structure, climbed the stairs to a deck off Anderson’s bedroom, and entered the house. The men made their way through dense smoke that severely compromised visibility and found Anderson in the hall. With difficulty, they maneuvered her back into her bedroom and toward the door to the deck. A responding sheriff’s deputy entered through that door and helped the coworker drag Anderson the remaining distance to the deck as McAuliffe, nearly overcome by smoke, exited the house for air. Anderson required hospitalization for treatment of smoke inhalation. McAuliffe also required hospital treatment for smoke inhalation and then sought additional treatment three days later. He recovered within a month.
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